Supreme Court Rewrites Pleading Requirements Gregory P. Joseph* In 1957, the Supreme Court ruled that, under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, ‛a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would ent ...

International Arbitration 2007 Gregory P. Joseph* International arbitration proceedings are subject to judicial scrutiny and action under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, implemented at 9 U.S.C. § 201, and the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16 (‛FAA“). The provisions ...

Spoliation: Truth or Consequences Gregory P. Joseph* I. Electronic Spoliation A. Negligence Standard: Residential Funding & Sequelae The lasting legal legacy of the current era of electronic discovery likely will lie in the area of spoliation and sanctions. Lawyers know how to review, shepherd and maintain paper. ...

Gregory P. Joseph Effective December 1, 2007, barring unforeseen circumstances, new rules will govern the filing of papers in all cases in federal court — civil, criminal, bankruptcy and appellate. The new rules mandate redaction of certain identifying personal information (‛personal identifiers“) from all filings. ...

EXPERT APPROACHES Gregory P. Joseph* Taking testimony from adverse experts is a tricky proposition - extracting what you want and bottling up what you don't. Experts ...

Gregory P. Joseph* A few weeks ago, the President signed legislation establishing the doctrine of selective waiver in the banking field. Disclosure of attorney-client privileged materials to banking authorities — U.S. or foreign — no longer effects a waiver as to third parties. Over the summer, the Third Circuit ruled t ...

Gregory P. Joseph The Alien Tort Statute (or Alien Tort Claims Act (‛ATS“)) confers federal subject matter jurisdiction over ‛any civil action by an alien for tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations....“ The Supreme Court held in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 724 (2004), that this ju ...

Gregory P. Joseph The Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence is considering Proposed Fed.R.Evid. 502, which would address waiver of attorney-client privilege and work product protection. The Rules Enabling Act requires affirmative Congressional approval of any rule "creating, abolishing, or modifying an evidentiary privilege." 28 U ...

Gregory P. Joseph* 2005 featured dramatic changes in federal jurisdiction effected by the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, Pub. L. 109-2 (‛CAFA“) and the United States Supreme Court decisions in Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Servs., 125 S.Ct. 2611 (2005) (†...

Gregory P. Joseph* It is difficult to deny taking a certain pleasure in witnessing a federal agency hammered with a $72 million sanction for a decade-long campaign of litigation abuse, as occurred in FDIC v. Hurwitz, 384 F. Supp. 2d 1039 (S.D. Tex. 2005), even though we as taxpayers will end up footing the bill ...