Filtered by Tag: Creativity

Comments on Recent Cases: September 2026

Often an agreement requires a party to work towards doing something rather than committing them to achieving something. This is often something a party is more willing to commit to, but it means the other party can place less reliance on the goal being achieved. The uncertainty often leads to litigation.

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Comments on Recent Cases: June 2026

Defendants in litigation often cite the statute of limitations to argue that the court should dismiss a claim because the plaintiff waited too long before asserting it. But applying time limits to claims is not always straightforward.
As we saw in the prior case, employment discrimination plaintiffs usually have a list of events about which they complain in litigation. While each of the events could support a discrimination clam, some of them may still be excluded from a lawsuit for being too distant if they are not tightly linked to actions within the time limit for filing a claim.
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Comments on Recent Cases: May 2026

Defamation claims can be difficult to prove. This is because the law protects statements of opinion from litigation, and a qualified privilege often applies that shields statements from liability unless the plaintiff can establish the defendant made the statement maliciously. These legal shields do not prevent the cost and burden of litigation altogether.
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Comments on Recent Cases: April 2026

Since litigation is burdensome and expensive, parties can make agreements to limit their own exposure to a lawsuit. Courts will enforce “no action” clauses, putting obstacles to the commencement of a lawsuit, even when they protect non-parties to the agreement.
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Comments on Recent Cases: March 2026

People are understandably upset when others say false things about them, and they may consider defamation litigation. When false statements arise in a public process, such as in city records or in court, the lies may do more damage than they would have in a less official forum. The subject of those statements may therefore feel a greater desire to sue. But common-interest privilege protects certain types of statements.
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Comments on Recent Cases: February 2026

When a court orders someone to appear for a deposition, the person must appear or get another court order to the contrary. The penalty for disobeying the order to appear, however, can vary. For witnesses who decline to appear, the penalty may be monetary. For parties to the lawsuit, the court may rule the person who failed to appear must lose, but that is not always the case.
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More Thoughts on Arbitration

There are several reasons why parties may choose arbitration over litigation. One reason is efficiency: arbitrations tend to move faster than court proceedings. This is because arbitrators often have lighter caseloads than judges and because they have the flexibility to skip various formalities. Also arbitration usually does not permit appeals, which saves the parties the costs of an appeal.
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Malpractice Litigation

Even though these issues are complex and are debated by experts, ultimately a malpractice claim may have a lay judge or jury that decides the facts. A judge or jury with no expert training at all may weigh the evidence and the credibility and reliability of the experts and decide whom to believe on professional standards and whether the defendant violated them. This is, understandably, an unpredictable process, which is why many cases have pressure to settle before trial. Judges, however, may dismiss malpractice claims before trial on summary judgment if in their opinion, the plaintiff has not offered sufficient evidence. Judges are experts in law, but they can’t be experts in every field. The outcome is unpredictable.
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More Thoughts on Cross Examination at Trial

Sometimes during cross-examination, things don’t go as planned. The witness may give a bad answer or the judge may cut off a line of questioning even though the lawyer really wanted to continue it. In those events, a lawyer is usually best served by remaining calm. Acting like these are huge losses may communicate to others that even the lawyer thinks their case is in bad shape. And while those losses are scary in the moment, a trial often has numerous opportunities for each side to make its case.
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Serving the Summons Again

Judges can strictly enforce rules, even if it means treating service as proper when the defendant did not physically receive the summons. If a defendant does not update her address in public records, it is possible she may not be able to say that service on an old address was insufficient. And if a defendant does not pay attention to the documents delivered to her home or office, her lack of diligence is no excuse.
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The Audience

Most of the time I have seen courtrooms with full audiences are when a judge convenes a hearing for the same time (or close to the same time) as other hearings. As a result, many people are in the audience since they are waiting for their own case to be called. It can be smart to come early to see how the judge conducts business in other cases to help prepare to argue before the judge in your own case.
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Litigation in the British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands is an Overseas Territory of the UK, but is not ‘part’ of the UK. Each Overseas Territory is its own jurisdiction but is not a sovereign state. The BVI court system is very similar to the UK system. The BVI is part of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) – which acts as the court for nine English Common Law jurisdictions and territories in the Eastern Caribbean. Each of the nine has its own High Court registry with in the ECSC, and appeals go to the ECSC of Appeal – which sits in the BVI three times a year (and more often if required). There is a final appeal to the Privy Council in London – the Privy Council comprises members of the UK final court of appeal.
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Litigation in Guatemala

Guatemala is known for its natural beauty, architecture, and strategic position withing Latin America, which led to the current development of its Interoceanic Corridor. While its tropical climate is one of its great attractions for many, the Guatemalan legal system shares the strengths and weaknesses of most of Latin America.
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Litigation in Singapore

The Singapore Courts deal with a high volume of all sorts of commercial disputes. The Singapore International Commercial Court specialises in international commercial disputes and streamlines complex cases with informed judges. The panel of judges in this court is populated by international judges sitting with local judges. Other areas can be just as focused, with the judges hearing cases within their domain expertise.
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Litigation in Uruguay

Unlike common-law systems where paying the other party’s legal fees helps limit unnecessary litigation, each party pays its own legal fees in Uruguay. There are two exceptions: judgment enforcements and egregious behavior.
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Litigation in Hong Kong

An advantage of the courts in Hong Kong is that they maintain strong judicial independence. On the other hand, there is a high risk and cost of litigation, and it can take three to four years to get to trial.
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