Employment Litigation in Spain

Labor cases are resolved fairly quickly, especially those involving layoffs. Normally the conciliation occurs within a month, and if there is no agreement between one and three months there is a trial.

A Million Questions

In American lawsuits, litigants usually have to search all of their email accounts and all of the physical spaces over which they exercise control. That’s a lot! It could include homes, offices, computers, external hard drives, USB hard drives, cloud email accounts, cell phones, storage spaces, and more. And for corporate litigants, it could apply not just to one clearly relevant employee, but to a whole list of possibly relevant employees.

Administrative Hearings

Municipalities, states, and the federal government pass laws that regulate certain conduct. And some of those laws state that an administrative agency is responsible for either investigating or hearing complaints about violations of those laws.

Comments on Recent Cases: March 2022

After the final decision in an arbitration, the losing party has one last recourse: it can ask a court to vacate the arbitration award. But because arbitration is meant to be a substitute for litigation, and not to duplicate it, courts are very reluctant to grant that relief.

Defending a Deposition

Besides objecting on the grounds of the privilege, many courts have rules that limit the instances in which a lawyer can instruct a witness not to answer a question. The lawyer’s only recourse in those cases is to immediately end the deposition and make a motion in court for a protective order, preventing the questioning attorney from asking the question again in a future deposition.

Motions in Limine

Each side at trial usually only has a finite amount of time. For example, a judge may allocate 20 hours to each side. As a result, a lawyer may decide that it makes sense to allow one side to waste some of its time on irrelevant evidence or to bury its good evidence in a mountain of dull evidence. Similarly, if one side believes it has a great rebuttal to opposing evidence and that rebuttal will improve its case, it may consent to the admission of opposing evidence so that it can dramatically present its rebuttal.

Litigation in Romania

Individuals cannot file constitutional cases directly with The Constitutional Court of Romania. If constitutional matters are raised during commercial matters, the judge of the commercial matter may file a case with the constitutional court regarding the constitutional matters raised and it will be solved independently of the pending commercial matter.

Comments on Recent Cases: February 2022

Many agreements are governed by the statute of frauds, a legal doctrine that requires certain agreements to be in writing. But a signed contract is not the only kind of agreement that satisfies this rule.

Fraud Claims

Plaintiffs may still hold defendants accountable, even when they cannot prove the defendant knew she was lying or when she cannot identify an express false statement. They can do this through claims for fraudulent omission and through negligent misrepresentation. But proving these claims have specific requirements as well.

Going to Court

During the covid-19 pandemic, many court appearances have taken place over platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or a conference call by phone. In my practice, this has eliminated the calendar call, so I no longer bill clients for time I spend waiting in a courtroom. Instead, the court schedules a specific time for me to be available for a video chat.

Litigation in Portugal

When a side wins, the other can be convicted to reimburse the court fees paid by the wining party as well as a compensation for attorney fees. However, that compensation is calculated by reference to the court fees paid by the parties and not for the real costs incurred to with attorneys. Most of the time, the compensation is not nearly enough to pay for said fees.

Comments on Recent Cases: January 2022

Courts will dismiss litigation over out-of-state defendants where there is an insufficient connection between the state and the claims. Even if a defendant does business in the same state as the court, that alone may be insufficient to confer personal jurisdiction.