Gregory P. Joseph* When is a state court class action complaint sufficiently amended to render the action subject to the Class Action Fairness Act (‛CAFA“), even though the case was originally commenced prior to the enactment of CAFA? Is the expansion of the plaintiffs’ claim sufficient? The addition of a defendant? Wha ...

Gregory P. Joseph Experts are dangerous. Not just the other side’s experts — yours. Every note they take, every draft they write, every document, email or phone call they share with you may be discoverable. American Fidelity Assur. Co. v. Ladonna Boyer & Comb. Ins. Co., 225 F.R.D. 520 (D.S.C. 2004) (collec ...

Gregory P. Joseph[*] The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (‛CAFA“) dramatically changes class action practice, primarily in four ways: It expands federal diversity jurisdiction to encompass most class actions — and som ...

Gregory P. Joseph* The Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure has published draft amendments addressing electronic discovery. The proposals extend beyond electronic discovery in some respects. None of the proposals will take eff ...

Gregory P. Joseph The case is settled. It was hard fought. There were numerous, often fractious, skirmishes. Sanctions motions were filed. But all of that has been resolved by the exchange of mutual releases at the time of settlement. Or has it? Recent decisions of the Third, Fourth and Ninth Circuits raise some sobering issue ...

Gregory P. Joseph The Supreme Court issued decisions in June 2005 that expanded supplemental jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1367 and federal question jurisdiction under § 1331. This article examines some of the implications of these two decisions for individual, mass and class actions, and the Class Action Fairness Act ...

This is only available in .PDF format ...

Gregory P. Joseph* Can you properly instruct your experts to destroy drafts of their reports as they are working toward the final? Does it matter whether those drafts bear or reflect the comments of others? What if the comments reflected on the drafts are yours? Must communications with experts — including your emails —be ...

Gregory P. Joseph* Can you properly instruct your experts to destroy drafts of their reports as they are working toward the final? Does it matter whether those drafts bear or reflect the comments of others? What if the comments reflected on the drafts are yours? Must communications with experts — including your emails —be ...

Gregory P. Joseph It is not necessary to understand computers to be able to address the evidentiary issues that computer-generated evidence presents. Three principles simplify the process. First, there are certain common types of computer-generated evidence that present no genuine issues of trustworthiness. For these, ordinary eviden ...