Commercial Litigation

If you ask an opposing party about the details of their document collection; the custodians interviewed; the keywords searched; or the culling approaches used; you are likely to get one response, a quickly erected brick wall. In Cooperation and Litigation: Thoughts on the American Experience (2013), Richard Marcus writes: “I […]

A cadre of corporations whose profit margins outweigh product safety have found a loophole in the litigation process: sealed settlement agreements. Such agreements are legal, as there is no law prohibiting them, and often left up to the discretion of the courts. Consumer advocates have a problem with that. The […]

Admit it, how many of us covet Converse, that classic American sneaker with a studly sense of style? Teenagers across the country aspired to own a pair of stitched-canvas, thick-laced, rubber-sole shoes synonymous with the greasers of the 1950s, nonconformists of the 1960s and hipsters of the 1970s. They were […]

Whether you are a friend or foe of the Hobby Lobby decision handed down by the United States Supreme Court this past Monday, citizens must know the very real and far-reaching consequences of the decision.  This decision has very broad ranging effects on employer and employee rights concerning access to […]

How the proposed revisions to the federal rules might impact corporate conduct? We are hearing unpleasant news about the way…

In any document search allowing defendants’ custodians to conduct their own searches is much like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse. Even focused and disciplined custodial collections can be fraught with problems. Example Email sent during product development: “ Jim – I am writing to you because of the […]

How do you obtain information in a lawsuit in 2014? The practice of EDiscovery involves “electronically stored information” (ESI). Ultimately, whether the data comes in an image of the document or raw data, it will be reduced to a coalescent image such as a PDF, a TIFF, or as a […]

Today, the discovery of information in most litigation involves large amounts of digital documents and data. Corporate counsel goes through a painful hand wringing ritual every time they think about data preservation versus spoliation versus data destruction. You can hear the pain flow down from the corporate inner wards every […]

As we have discussed before, the federal Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure have been entertaining comments on new rule revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Over 600 comments to the proposed revisions have been filed so far; many by lawyers who generally represent plaintiffs. Why largely […]

Floridians need real help on insurance issues from our legislature and governor and it is not in the area of flood insurance premiums. Floridians need help with insurers who want to accept all the favorable legislation they can get (see our articles on PIP and sinkhole coverage), they want to […]