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Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
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Res Judicata/Collateral Estoppel — Preclusive Effect of Foreign Criminal Conviction

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In a recent decision arising out of the Pan Am 103/Lockerbie tragedy, Hurst v Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 474 F.Supp.2d 19 (D.D.C. 2007), District Judge Henry Kennedy held as a matter of first impression in the D.C. Circuit that a foreign criminal judgment is entitled to preclusive effect in a subsequent civil action where (I) pursuant to Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 202 (1895), ‛there has been an opportunity for a full and fair trial in a foreign court of competent jurisdiction after proper service or voluntary appearance by the defendant and under a judicial system which does not violate U.S. public policy,“ and (II) the doctrine of collateral estoppel applies because the issue ‛has been (1) actually litigated and (2) necessarily determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in the first trial; (3) and that its use in the second trial not work an unfairness on the defendant.“ Held, these standards were satisfied by a conviction in the Scottish High Court following a trial lasting 84 days, in which the prosecution called 231 witnesses, 132 of whom were cross-examined by counsel for the defendant.

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New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

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