A blog about the work lawyers do to win commercial disputes by Will Newman
Filtered by Category: Litigation
Lawyers have a reputation for being self-important and rude. Members of the general public who litigate without lawyers have a reputation for being insane cranks. And clerks have to deal with a steady stream of both kinds of people every day. This can be frustrating.
Read MoreThe client may believe that, if her lawyer says “too bad” to an adversary who is about to go off on vacation and therefore cannot respond to a complaint, the lawyer may be doing justice by helping her win quickly and cheaply. But the truth is that the opposing counsel will likely be able to ask the court for an extension anyway and then be less willing to give extensions in return when the client’s counsel wants them. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Read MoreSophisticated businesses often agree to resolve their disputes through private arbitration instead of by going to court. Arbitration has numerous advantages, such as being confidential instead of public and being generally less expensive. But another advantage is that the parties can provide input on the selection of their arbitrator and thus can select an arbitrator and a forum that is well-suited for commercial disputes.
Read MoreI try to let clients know that I understand what they are going through. It may make a lawyer easer to trust if they recognize the emotional challenges that client may be going through because that may mean they have more emotional intelligence, or at least experience with similar issues.
Read MoreClients often hire lawyers in their own community. And those lawyers typically are allowed to appear in the local court. But sometimes clients hire lawyers from another community than the one in which the relevant court is located. This has happened a lot in my work, and so I wrote a post about lawyers being temporarily admitted to a different court. A few years later, I write to update the post.
Read MoreThe bulk of the relevant material may be there since it includes the materials the parties thought to ask for and that counsel identified as being relevant. But there may be relevant information elsewhere! And so a creative litigator thinks outside of the box and searches for more facts that may be useful.
Read MoreWitnesses swear to tell the truth at the start of their depositions, just as they do when they testify in court. And violating that oath is technically a crime, just as it would be for lying in court. And a court reporter makes a verbatim transcript of the deposition, which allows lawyers to submit the exact same testimony at trial.
Read MoreAnswers are usually relatively inexpensive documents to draft because they do not need to be well-crafted narratives that persuade people of the defendant’s innocence. Defendants have other opportunities in a lawsuit to explain their story, such as in motions to dismiss the case and at trial.
Read MoreA complaint is often an effort to prompt a settlement. Defendants and their attorneys often review a complaint to assess whether it looks like it states claims that pose a likelihood of success and whether the lawyers who drafted it seem sufficiently serious and intelligent lawyers to actually win a case or to negotiate reasonably. Complaints with clear errors or bizarre hyperbole may suggest that a negotiation would be unproductive or even unnecessary.
Read MoreIn many personal injury suits, the plaintiff - the person bringing the lawsuit - is the injured party. This is the person who has “standing” to bring the lawsuit. Some other person, a friend or relative, generally cannot sue for someone else’s injury.
Read MorePeople often view the legal system as deciding what conduct is unacceptable. It provides consequences to people who do unacceptable things like breaching an agreement, stealing, and violence. But people may be unclear about what those consequences can be; the consequences may even be an afterthought. So I wrote a post about what a lawsuit can do to benefit the people who come to court to complain about someone else’s misconduct.
Read MoreAfter discovery, one party may file a statement with the court stating that the case is ready for trial. This document is a “Note of Issue.” And once the court has this document, it may schedule a trial and also set dates for the other events that need to take place in advance of a trial, such as a pretrial conference and the deadline for submissions of witness lists.
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