Category Archives: Civil Procedure

Craig Ball Presents “Introduction to Discovery in U.S. Civil Litigation.

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Discovery, E-Discovery, Federal Rules of Discovery, Litigation, Research

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Introduction to Discovery in U.S. Civil Litigation, by Craig Ball, Ball In Your Court

https://ballinyourcourt.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/introduction-to-discovery-in-u-s-civil-litigation/

Thank you, Craig Ball, for generously sharing your materials. If you have any interest whatsoever in litigation, this is a “must” read. -CCE

I am fortunate to teach electronic discovery and digital evidence in many venues. . . .

All of these entail accompanying written material, so there is a lot of research and writing for the various courses and presentations.  Some of my students aren’t lawyers or are law students with the barest theoretical understanding of discovery.  I’ve found it’s never safe to assume that students know the mechanisms of last-century civil discovery, let alone those of modern e-discovery.  Accordingly, I penned the following short introduction to discovery in U.S. civil litigation and offer it here in case you need something like it, especially if you’re also teaching this stuff.  [It’s copyrighted, but feel free to use it with attribution]. . . .

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Questions About The New Federal Rules Amendments on Discovery? – 1st of 5-Part Guide.

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Discovery, E-Discovery, Federal Civil Procedure, Preservation

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 Day 1: Your First Five Questions (times four): A Practical Guide to the Amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – Proportionality, by Karin Scholz Jenson, Gary Levin, Robert J. Tucker, James A. Sherer and Jonathan Forman, Discovery Advocate Blog

http://tinyurl.com/o72ub69

If you do not fully comprehend the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, you are not alone. We will learn more as district and circuit courts rule on cases affected by these amendments.

Please note the hyperlink under the “Conference Commentary” button to see the Summary of The Report of The Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, which will also assist you. -CCE

The current amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—and, in particular, those that address the practice of civil discovery—are the product of five years of development, debate, and, of course, dialogue. Now that the Rules are set to be implemented on December 1, 2015 – and they apply to pending cases where ‘just and practicable’ — the focus among attorneys and their clients has changed from what the Rules should say to how they should work . . . .

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Current List of Each State’s E-Discovery Rules.

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Court Rules, Courts, Discovery, E-Discovery

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Current Listing of States That Have Enacted E-Discovery Rules, Electronic Discovery Law, K&L Gates Blog

http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/state-district-court-rules/

K&L Gates keeps this list of state’s e-discovery rules constantly updated. I love one-stop clicking and appreciate the reminder to look for your judge’s local rules, forms, and guidelines. -CCE

More and more states are adopting statutes and court rules addressing the discovery of electronically stored information. Here is a current list with links to the relevant provisions. Please note also that many judges have created their own forms or have crafted their own preferred protocols for e-discovery. These are generally available on the website of the individual judge and care should be taken to ensure you are aware of any such forms or guidelines in any court you may appear in. . . .

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Service of Process Proper on Corporate Franchisee, Not Local Franchisee.

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Service of Process

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Where Corporate Franchisor is Named Defendant, Service of Process on Local Franchisee is Insufficient, by Daniel E. Cummins, Tort Talk Blog

http://www.torttalk.com/2015/06/where-corporate-franchisor-is-named.html

In the case of  Trexler vs McDonald’s Corporation, 2015 Pa. Super. 131, 903 MDA 2014 (Pa. Super. June 3, 2015 Ford Elliott, P.J.E.,  Shogan, J., Stabile, J.)(Op. by Stabile, J.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court recently clarified that, where the named Defendant in a lawsuit is the Corporate Franchisor, . . . for service of a Complaint as original process to be proper, the Complaint must be served upon that Corporate Franchisor Defendant, and not the individual franchisee who may own the local establishment. . . .

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Pleading Code In Poetry.

18 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Federal Civil Procedure, Legal Writing, Legalese, Plain Language, Pleadings

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The Pleading, by Mark Cooney, Plain Language, 94 Mich. B.J. 3, 42 (March 2015)

Click to access pdf4article2583.pdf

Another article from the Plain English Subcommittee of the Michigan Bar Journal. As always, each article makes a case for using plain English in legal writing. This group has been, and remains, a strong proponent for elegant legal writing without legalese.

This selection is a clever take off Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven, that cautions the reader against writing pleadings with stuffy, archaic language. Its author, editor in chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and author of Sketches on Legal Style, Mark Cooney, is a legal writing professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. -CCE

Once upon a docket dreary, as I pondered
after hearings,
Over many a curious case then pending
with the busy court,
While I read, attention sapping, suddenly
there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at
my chambers door.
‘Tis my clerk again,’ I grumbled, ‘tapping
on my chambers door—
Oh, yet another matter more.’

Pausing just a moment further, bracing
for the fresh-faced fervor,
Up I turned my heavy head to bid my
clerk in through the door.
In he stepped with youthful stride,
brand-new filing at his side,
Still another motion coming briskly
through my chambers door—
A docket full and motions more, another
through my chambers door—
Coming through my chambers door. . . .

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A Special Treat For Civil Procedure Geeks.

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Federal Civil Procedure

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A Reader’s Guide to Pre-Modern Procedure, by Louis J. Sirico, Jr., Legal Skills Prof Blog

http://tinyurl.com/lqodu5n

In this short article, David Noll explains procedural terms with which students often are unfamiliar. These terms predate the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which most Civil Procedure classes seem to pass over.

These terms, like ‘demurrer’ and ‘nonsuit,’ may pop up not only in old court cases that students may study, but also in state court procedural rules. . . .

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Drafting The Order When You Win Your Motion? Beware Judicial Plagiarism!

19 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Legal Analysis, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Motions

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Judicial Plagiarism, by Tiffany Johnson, Esq., Good Legal Writing Blog

http://goodlegalwriting.com/2015/03/08/judicial-plagiarism/#more-497

Have you ever argued a motion and had the court rule directly from the bench awarding you your requested relief? Didn’t you feel like the cool kid that day? Chest puffed out a little bit while you tried to restrain yourself out of respect for opposing counsel? And after winning your motion, did the court dump the task of drafting the order on you? Of course it did. No court has time to actually draft orders, right? That’s the least you could do after the court was gracious enough to rule in your favor. And even though it was another tick to your to-do list, you secretly welcomed that chore, because it meant you got to tweak the wording of the order precisely to your client’s advantage. Am I off here? No. You know this drill.

Well, hold your horses, cowboy. A recent case from Tennessee illustrates the possible dangers that may lie ahead up in them there hills. . . .

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Why Circuit Courts Reassign Cases To Different District Judges On Remand.

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Appellate Judges, Civil Procedure, Court Orders, Federal Civil Procedure, Federal Judges, Judges

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Standards For Reassignment To A Different Judge On Remand, by Raymond P. Ward, Louisiana Civil Appeals

http://raymondpward.typepad.com/la-appellate/2015/02/standards-for-reassignment.html

In U.S. ex rel. Little v. Shell Exploration & Production Co., 14-20156 (5th Cir. Feb. 23, 2015) (unpublished), the Fifth Circuit not only reversed a summary judgment, but also ordered that, on remand, the case be reassigned to a different district judge. Why? Here is the sequence of events in a nutshell:

  1.  The district court rendered summary judgment in defendants’ favor.
  2.  On appeal, the Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the district court applied the wrong legal standard. The Fifth Circuit remanded with instructions for the district court to apply the correct legal standard.
  3.  A year later, the district court again rendered summary judgment in defendants’ favor, apparently applying the same legal standard that the Fifth Circuit had rejected. The Fifth Circuit concluded that, in rendering this judgment, the district court disregarded the Fifth Circuit’s instructions on remand.

Starting at page 25, the decision includes a survey of case law enunciating various standards applied by circuit courts in deciding whether to reassign a case to a different judge on remand. So this decision is worth tucking away for future reference in case you ever find yourself in need of similar relief.

Federal Judge Uses Benchslap Cartoon To Make Civil Procedure Point.

09 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Federal Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction

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Judge Uses Cartoons To Benchslap Jones Day, by Joe Patrice, Above The Law Blog

http://abovethelaw.com/2014/12/judge-uses-cartoons-to-benchslap-jones-day/

Judge Robert J. Jonker is a saucy one.

He once shot down Thomas M. Cooley Law’s trumped up defamation claims by declaring that the statement that Cooley “‘grossly inflates its graduates’ reported mean salaries’ may not merely be protected hyperbole, but actually substantially true.” Snap.

So it wasn’t a tremendous shock to see Judge Jonker involved when a recent benchslap kicked off with a cartoon.

Is it the funniest cartoon in the world? No. Indeed, it falls into the Ziggy realm of groan-inducing comics. But is it a special kind of embarrassing when a federal judge feels words are not enough to call out your inappropriate behavior and breaks the judiciary’s largely staid approach to put a comic into an opinion? Absolutely.

So what got him so irked? . . . .

Changes to Federal Rules Effective December 1, 2014.

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Appellate Law, Bankruptcy Law, Civil Procedure, Court Rules, Courts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Federal Civil Procedure

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Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure, United States Courts (with hat tip to Andrea Duncan, RP!)

http://www.uscourts.gov/RulesAndPolicies/rules/current-rules.aspx

The following rules became effective December 1, 2014:

Appellate Rule 6 (doc) (pdf)

  • Doc. 113-161 – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (pdf)

Bankruptcy Rules 1014, 7004, 7008, 7054, 9023, and 9024 (doc) (pdf), and 8001-8028 (“Part VIII Rules”) (doc) (pdf)

  • Doc. 113-165 – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (pdf)

Civil Rule 77 (doc) (pdf)

  • Doc. 113-163 – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (pdf)

Criminal Rules 5, 6, 12, 34, and 58 (doc) (pdf)

  • Doc. 113-162 – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (pdf)

Evidence Rules 801(d)(1)(B) and 803(6)–(8) (doc) (pdf)

  • Doc. 113-164 – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence (pdf)

 

Two 2014 Pivotal Supreme Court Cases on Personal Jurisdiction And Their Lasting Impact on Civil Litigation.

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Civil Procedure, Class Actions, Federal Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction, Litigation

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Rhodes and Robertson on the New PJ Decisions, by Robin Effron, Civil Procedure & Federal Courts Blog

http://tinyurl.com/kbepuyd

Interesting implications for both state and federal civil litigation. This article deserves thoughtful study. -CCE

Charles “Rocky” Rhodes (South Texas College of Law) and Cassandra Burke Robertson (Case Western) have posted Toward a New Equilibrium in Personal Jurisdiction to SSRN.

In early 2014, the Supreme Court decided two new personal jurisdiction cases that will have a deep and wide-ranging impact on civil litigation in the coming decades: Daimler AG v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746 (2014), and Walden v. Fiore, 134 S. Ct. 1115 (2014). Bauman eliminates the traditional “continuous and systematic” contacts test for general jurisdiction, and Walden significantly retracts the ability of courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants whose actions have in-state effects. Taken together, both cases will make it significantly more difficult for plaintiffs to exercise control over where lawsuits are filed. In some cases — such as large-scale class actions — the new decisions may make it impossible to identify a single forum where multiple defendants can be sued together, and will therefore shift the balance of litigation power from plaintiffs to defendants.

This Article examines the effect that these decisions will have on future litigation and suggests solutions to the problems that will arise in the wake of these decisions. It analyzes how the Court’s new jurisprudence has shifted the balance of power in the jurisdictional framework, and it explores areas of future litigation. . . .

Free App to Access PACER on iPhones and iPads.

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Appellate Law, Apps, Bankruptcy Law, Cell Phones, Dockets, E-Filing, Federal District Court Rules, Federal Law, iPad, iPhones, Legal Technology, PACER, Trial Tips and Techniques, U.S. Courts of Appeal

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Review: DkT — access PACER on the iPad and iPhone, by Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D. Blog

http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2014/01/review-dkt-pacer.html

Jeff reviews a free app created by Matthew Zorn called “DkT.” In this post, Jeff leads you through the various steps to use this app. Because this is the first version, no doubt Matthew will tweak it as time goes by. Regardless of its minor flaws, if you practice in federal court, this is an incredibly useful tool for your iPad or iPhone. -CCE

If you ever practice in federal court, then using PACER is a part of your job.  PACER websites typically let you select a mobile option so that you can access PACER on an iPad or an iPhone, but the experience isn’t ideal.  You cannot save your username or password, it is difficult to manually enter case numbers, and every time you access a docket sheet or a document you have to pay to do so.  Matthew Zorn, an attorney at a large New York law firm, decided to do something about that, so he spent nine months writing a useful and beautifully designed app that he calls DkT.  The DkT app is free and can access PACER for federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts.

State and federal court rules, forms, and dockets — all in one place.

21 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by in Court Rules, Dockets, Legal Writing, Research

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LLRX Court Rules, Forms and Dockets
http://www.llrx.com/courtrules/

Legal research experts and librarians Sabrina I. Pacifici and Margaret Berkland last updated this site in January 2011. It contains over 1,400 links to state and federal court rules, forms, and dockets.