Filtered by Tag: pleadings

More Thoughts on E-Filing

How do you start a lawsuit? The answer in a lot of places and under many situations is by electronically filing a document!

E-Filing

How do you start a lawsuit? The answer in a lot of places and under many situations is by electronically filing a document!

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Comments on Recent Cases: May 2025

Parties in American litigation not only often have the power to conduct deposition interviews of the other parties; normally they can compel non-parties, too. But this power, however, is not unlimited.
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Comments on Recent Cases: April 2025

Parties in litigation have very broad powers to ask questions and gain information about the other parties. This often includes information that is irrelevant to the case. But in some instances, courts will put limits on the subjects of inquiry in discovery.
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Comments on Recent Cases: March 2025

Parties in litigation have very broad powers to ask questions and gain information about the other parties. This often includes information that is irrelevant to the case. But in some instances, courts will put limits on the subjects of inquiry in discovery.
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Comments on Recent Cases: February 2025

After a deposition, a witness should review the transcript of her testimony to make sure that it is accurate. She can note in the “errata” sheet any errors. But the witness can only correct mistakes in the transcription of her words; she cannot alter the substance of her responses in the errata sheet.
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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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More Thoughts on What People Get From Lawsuits

People 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.
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Specific Documents in New York State Court Litigation

After 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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More Thoughts on How Long Lawsuits Go On For

The wheels of justice move more slowly than many people expect. Lawsuits, even ones where you are very much right and the other side are bad people, often take months or even years.
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Politics and Commercial Litigation

Part of why I rarely see the influence of politics in my work is because of stare decisis. In general, courts follow the rules set forth by appeals courts. And so judges have limited opportunities to carry out the bidding of powerful interests if doing so required making new law. To do so may require a case with no existing precedent, which may be rare, or a case that proceeds to appeal, which may also be relatively rare for many commercial cases, which often settle.
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More Thoughts on Litigation Expenses

For me, I often find the magic number to around $300,000 - disputes about a number below that amount, in many circumstances, are hard to make work economically.
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Litigation in Haiti

From the complaint to the judgment, the deadline can last up to three months if there aren’t any strikes. Often times it is the clerks who are on strike, other times it is the judges or bailiffs to claim salary adjustments (raises) or better working conditions.
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Litigation in Iceland

"Eðli máls" (the nature of the case) is a recognized source of law in Icelandic legal practice. It is used when there is no explicit statutory provision, precedent, custom, or other clear legal source that directly applies to a particular legal issue. When courts or legal professionals rely on "eðli máls," they base their decisions on reason, fairness, and general legal principles to determine a just and reasonable outcome.
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Litigation in Turkey

In general, Turkey does not have the jury system for any kind of courts or trials. However, the number of assigned judges may vary according to type of the claim and the court. For instance, the commercial courts usually have 1 judge and this is the normal practice. However, if the value of the claim exceeds 300.000 TRY, then a committee of judges (3 judges) handles the claim.
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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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