Filtered by Tag: contracts

Representations and Warranties

Many contracts have “indemnification” provisions, that state exactly what a defendant needs to do if a representation is false. For example, the provision may state that the defendant is only responsible for a certain amount of damages or that the plaintiff needs to follow a specific procedure before it can bring a lawsuit.

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Comments on Recent Cases: January 2025

A defendant in litigation may argue that the plaintiff sued in the wrong court. For example, a California defendant may claim that they should not need to participate in a lawsuit in a New York court. And while judges often decide these issues before the parties need to exchange evidence, sometimes courts require a limited exchange of evidence to decide whether the plaintiff chose the right court.
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Comments on Recent Cases: December 2024

An important part of litigation is the motion for summary judgment. It is a litigant’s opportunity to avoid a trial on the grounds that the opponent has no evidence that can support her claims or defenses. But to prevail, a movant needs good evidence herself.
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Comments on Recent Cases: November 2024

A principal question a lawyer must ask before commencing litigation is who the correct plaintiff should be. Not every plaintiff has standing to bring a lawsuit, and making the wrong choice may not be easy to fix. In some cases this is an easy question, but in others it can be more difficult.
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Comments on Recent Cases: October 2024

A party to litigation has a duty to preserve relevant evidence. They can’t just shred everything to leave their adversary without evidence at trial. But parties may disagree about the extent they need to preserve. If a judge decides one side did not preserve enough, she may decide to tell a jury to assume the missing evidence was bad for the party who did not preserve it.
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Comments on Recent Cases: September 2024

I wrote a cover story in the most recent issue of Litigation News, a publication of the ABA Section of Litigation. It is about a challenge that journalists made to a Texas law that restricts the use of drones. And while the court ultimately refused to strike down the law, it considered whether the federal government even permits states to regulate the use of airspace and the balance between the right of journalists to take photographs and the ability of the government to restrict certain locations from interference.
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2025 Document Review Strategies

Companies often compile spreadsheets or other documents that are helpful to better understand the facts of the case or to evaluate claims made by witnesses. I try to keep an eye out for documents like employee directories, monthly financial statements, and organization charts.
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Securities Fraud Claims

The basis for many securities fraud claims is a Securities and Exchange Commission rule called Rule 10b-5. That rule essentially prohibits anyone from lying in connection with securities. Often this is in connection with the sale and promotion of securities, but the rule also applies to statements made by a publicly traded company to the marketplace in general.
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Taking a Deposition

The deposition should start by following the script of questions that the lawyer prepared. But witnesses will frequently give unexpected answers. This is why I keep an eye on the transcript (I usually pay extra for the “Real Time” screen that lets me see the transcription of what was just said) and, if the answer leads to more questions or if the answer is unclear or unresponsive, I follow up until I get a clear answer.
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More Thoughts on Temporary Restraining Orders

Temporary Restraining Orders frequently arise in disputes arising from the use of confidential material or intellectual property. This may be because it is difficult to quantify the damage arising from improper use of confidential material and so a money judgment may not properly compensate a plaintiff.
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More Thoughts on Releases

In a settlement negotiation, the defendant's main objective is to get a release from the plaintiff. A defendant usually offers the plaintiff money in exchange for a promise by the plaintiff not to sue and to end any existing litigation. But the defendant usually also wants a release from the plaintiff because it legally ends the threat of any future litigation by the plaintiff on the subject of the dispute.
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Litigation in Belgium

In Brussels there are Dutch and French speaking courts. I plead before both of them or other courts in Wallonia in French. We have a small German speaking territory (a leftover feom WWI) and I have had the chance to plead before the local court in German a few times.
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Litigation in Slovenia

Slovenia is a civil law country, so we don’t need to state the law as much as in common law. As a result, 10-20 pages for an initial complaint is average, but it depends on complexity. The complaints in simple cases could be shorter.
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Litigation in Botswana

The way that customary law works, it applies to people who live in tribal communities where the value of claim is usually very small. So when you deal with commercial disputes, the amount at stake is higher and so civil law applies.
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Litigation in South Korea

Korean courts are efficient, with specialized judges who have strong expertise in commercial law, making them effective at handling complex disputes. Their focus on written submissions ensures clarity and thorough consideration of the issues.
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Litigation in Luxembourg

Despite several e-justice projects in the pipeline or on their way to be adopted, Luxembourg is still in the early stages of electronic filing. Everything is still done on paper. This mass of paperwork leads me to say that our law firms have, in their secretariats, a real in-house print shop.
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