A blog about the work lawyers do to win commercial disputes by Will Newman
Filtered by Category: Litigation
Setting traps works when the lawyer is confident that she knows how a witness will answer a question and that the answer will be demonstrably false. So, for example, if the lawyer is confident that the witness will testify that a light was red, the lawyer may ask what color the light was, and then show a picture of a green light to reveal that the witness was wrong.
Read MoreSome lawyers before a jury trial use jury consultants or focus groups to get insight into how a real jury may consider the facts and what themes may be more persuasive than others. This is especially helpful for lawyers who may come from different social backgrounds from members of the jury. This is also helpful because some things that may seem irrelevant to a lawyer (such as where a witness works or lives) may have significant impact on their credibility to some jurors.
Read MoreMost of my calls do not end with me getting a new client. I don’t want to take people’s money for a case they cannot win. But I want people to remember me when future issues arise. So I try to be a sympathetic ear for their problems and a source for an honest view of how I see their case. My hope is that people appreciate that.
Read MoreLitigants frequently seek to domesticate foreign judgments in the United States because defendants often have accounts at American banks. The United States may also seem like an attractive place to domesticate a judgment because nearly every major bank in the world has an office or does business in the United States. But just because a bank is subject to jurisdiction in the United States does not mean that courts will definitely enforce foreign judgments against the assets they hold.
Read MoreMany sanctions motions arise in the context of discovery. This is because the court system generally relies on the parties to trust each other in the conduct of discovery. There is no judge present for depositions and the parties usually supervise their own document gathering and production. Because of this freedom from direct oversight, there is a lot of opportunity for abuse. Accordingly, parties frequently allege other people violate the rules.
Read MoreBeyond collaborating on documents, online storage is important to make sure important documents can be easily found in one place and are not vulnerable to destruction if a computer or disk is lost or destroyed. And I understand that online storage is very inexpensive right now.
Read MoreEvery negotiation is different and some employers may offer very different terms than others. Some big companies have a lot of money and are generous to outgoing employees. Some employers are less generous and offer very little. There are usually no requirements for the amount of a severance.
Read MoreCourts are often reluctant to enforce non-competition agreements. They recognize that workers need to be allowed to make a living and often do not have the same bargaining power as employers when entering into employment agreements. And so they will not just enforce any non-competition agreement they see. Instead, they only enforce ones with reasonable limits.
Read MoreThe implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing is a promise that state law declares is inherent in every contract unless the contract expressly disclaims it. The Uniform Commercial Code, for example, codifies it at UCC 1-304. It basically requires people who enter into contracts to act consistently with the object of the agreement. So, for example, if a sponsor of an apartment building agrees to sell apartments, that agreement contains an implied promise that the sponsor will not wait ten years to do so, making the finances of the building unsustainable.
Read MoreSome documents contain both privileged and non-privileged information. For those documents, an attorney redacts out the privileged portion, and produces a redacted version of the document that reveals the non-privileged portion. The attorney discloses details about the privileged portion on the privilege log. Redactions are a big task in document review and document production.
Read MoreA major reason why litigants select one court instead of another is that the court they select is more conveniently located. The court may be near where the plaintiff or other key witnesses live, so they can more easily testify there. Or it may be near where the plaintiff’s attorney works, so she can more easily represent the client and appear for hearings.
Read MoreThere are numerous examples of completely nonsensical claims that plaintiffs have submitted to court, and each of them technically started a lawsuit. A mentally ill person sued numerous defendants, alleging she was a cyborg with information about a slavery conspiracy. A former president sued a laundry list of people, alleging a conspiracy to make up connections with Russia. A beer drinker sued a brewer, alleging its beer did not help him attract women.
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