Oral Arguments

Unlike an argument in a bar or at the dinner table, oral arguments in commercial litigation usually have an organized structure. In a trial court, the judge normally invites the lawyer making a motion to explain why her motion should be granted. And at an appellate court, the judges invite the appellant’s lawyer to explain why the trial court’s decision should be reversed. Then the lawyer begins speaking and opposing counsel is supposed to remain silent. The judge or judges, however, may interrupt with questions and even maintain a back and forth conversation with the attorney about the arguments.

Comments on Recent Cases: July 2021

One way in which courts have the power to enforce their orders is by holding disobedient parties in contempt. When a party is in contempt, they could be forced to pay fines or even put in jail. Although I have never personally seen a party in a commercial case put in jail for contempt, I have read a few cases where courts have awarded fines.

Making a Motion

A movant will often submit a legal report, called a brief or memorandum of law, explaining why the motion should be granted. The brief will usually recount the facts of the case and cite relevant law that explains why the judge should grant the motion. These documents can range in length from a few pages to twenty-five or more. Briefs often refer to evidence and, when they do, they cite to supporting affidavits or declarations.

Litigation in Cameroon

In Cameroon, some courts follow the common law system and others follow the civil law system. This is due to the bijural nature of the country that dates from time of colonisation by Britain and France. In the Supreme Court, common law and civil law judges sit together as a panel to hear matters. Each type of judge decides matters concerning their legal system.

Class Actions

Many class action settlements are very low. Sometimes the class members get fewer than a hundred dollars, or even no money at all, but a free product instead. This is because the damages to individual plaintiffs may be low, and because settlements generally do not fully compensate plaintiffs as they reflect a compromise between the parties. But even when the payments to class members is low, the plaintiffs’ attorney may receive a substantial payment from the defendant for their fees working on the case.

Learning Case Facts From Documents

Once a lawyer has reviewed all of the documents, she may re-review them with the knowledge she gained from reviewing other documents. In this phase, e-mails and documents that did not seem to provide information before may seem very different. For example, once the reviewer learns how rarely the president of the company writes about a subject, and email from her may seem more important than it seemed at first.

Comments on Recent Cases: June 2021

A party in litigation may give an adversary a series of statements to which they must admit or deny. For example, one may say “Admit you were an employee of X Corp. on January 5, 2017.” These are called “notices to admit.” But courts have held that their use has limits.

Sworn Statements

An affidavit will often have the “caption” or the name of the relevant lawsuit at the top of the page. Beneath that is usually the title of the document in all caps: AFFIDAVIT OF JANE SMITH. And then after a paragraph that says that the person who signed the affidavit (often called the “affiant”) did so under oath, there are usually a series of numbered paragraphs.

Amended Complaints

If a complaint alleges fraud, the complaint may be vulnerable to a motion to dismiss if it does not allege that the defendant knew her statements were false at the time she made them because that is a necessary component of the claim. If the defendant moves to dismiss on those grounds, the plaintiff may address the deficiency by amending her complaint to include the necessary allegation.

Litigation in Native American Tribal Courts

Tribal courts will hear contract cases if there is a clause in a contract in which the parties agree to tribal court jurisdiction. They generally will honor contract forum selection clauses, but if there is a non-sophisticated party that didn’t understand the contract when he or she signed it, the tribal court may disregard it.

Joint Defense Groups

Counsel for minor participants often listen carefully to each of the joint defense calls to make sure that none of the issues negatively affect their clients. Since the major participants may not be thinking of the minor participants when doing their work, it is up to the minor participants’ counsel to make sure that their clients’ interests are protected.

Comments on Recent Cases: May 2021

To survive a motion for summary judgment, a plaintiff usually needs to submit some evidence that could support an eventual win at trial. Though they can do this by submitting a sworn statement, a court often will disregard a witness statement if it contradicts his deposition testimony. This prevents lawyers from “fixing” a bad statement at deposition by writing up a better answer later.