A blog about the work lawyers do to win commercial disputes by Will Newman
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 MoreLawsuits are submitted to the Commercial Courts based on the type of dispute. Courts monitor real jurisdiction ex officio, so as soon as the Court receives a complaint, it must first check whether it actually has jurisdiction.
Read MoreLitigants are generally given only one chance to litigate their claims. Once a court issues a final judgment on a matter, restrictions limit the litigant’s ability to argue the case again in another court. One such restriction is in the U.S. Constitution, which requires each state to give “full faith and credit” to the judgments other state’s courts. This restriction, however, has limits.
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 MoreThere is no pre-trial discovery in Iran. The first time a litigant sees opposing witnesses is at the trial before the judge. I can, however, use the electronic platform to review the documents opposing litigants submit to a court.
Read MoreLitigation News published an article I recently wrote about the process of fighting an arbitration award in court. Although courts generally do not second guess the decisions of arbitrators or give litigants a second chance to present their case, there are limited circumstances when a court will refuse to issue a litigation judgment based on an arbitration.
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 MoreLower-level courts often consult with the higher-level courts before trial to be assured that their judgments will not be appealed, which works quite well for simple disputes. But when it comes to complex disputes between large corporations, the lower-level courts cannot really issue an unappealable judgment.
Read MoreParties to a contract often go to court when they have different interpretations of what an agreement means. Litigation, however, is expensive and burdensome, and so many litigants ask the court to decide the issue of contract interpretation at the start of a lawsuit, before going through discovery. But at an initial stage, courts may decline to decide how to interpret an agreement.
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.
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