Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Complex Lit Blog

The question in CS Stars LLC v. First AllAmerica Fin. Life Ins. Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83738 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 13, 2007), was not whether sanctions should be awarded (that had been decided earlier) but whether the attorneys' fees request was too high. The sanctioned party argued that opposing counsel had over-lawyered the offense and that the request shou ...
The question in CS Stars LLC v. First AllAmerica Fin. Life Ins. Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83738 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 13, 2007), was not whether sanctions should be awarded (that had been decided earlier) but whether the attorneys’ fees…
‛The concept of spoliation derives from the Latin phrase ‘contra spolatorem omnia praesumuntur,’ meaning ‘all things presumed against the destroyer.’“ Perez v. La Dove, Inc., 964 So. 2d 777 (Fla. App. 2007) (citing Maria A. Losavio, Synthesis of Louisiana Law on Spoliation of Evidence-Compared to the Rest of the Country, Did We Handle it Corre ...
‛The concept of spoliation derives from the Latin phrase ‘contra spolatorem omnia praesumuntur,’ meaning ‘all things presumed against the destroyer.’“ Perez v. La Dove, Inc., 964 So. 2d 777 (Fla. App. 2007) (citing Maria A. Losavio, Synthesis of Louisiana Law…
A lot of discovery abuse was found by the Court in Wood Group Pressure Control, LP v. B&B Oilfield Servs., Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83708 (E.D. La. April 27, 2007). Useful points: 1. Degrading Data to Backup Tapes as Spoliation. Defense counsel never implemented a litigation hold. As a result, emails were deleted from activ ...
A lot of discovery abuse was found by the Court in Wood Group Pressure Control, LP v. B&B Oilfield Servs., Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83708 (E.D. La. April 27, 2007). Useful points: 1. Degrading Data to Backup Tapes as…
28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) provides that "[a]n order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise." Under Thermatron Prods., Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423 U.S. 336 (1976), the jurisdictional bar of § 1447(d) is limited to the grounds enumerated in § 1447(c). The question of first impression in HIF Bio, In ...
28 U.S.C. § 1447(d) provides that “[a]n order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise.” Under Thermatron Prods., Inc. v. Hermansdorfer, 423 U.S. 336 (1976), the jurisdictional bar…
A nightmare scenario. You are representing the foreign plaintiffs suing Texaco and Chevron for cancer caused by their Ecuadorian oil operations, and one your clients testify as follows: Q: Ms. [plaintiff], isn't it true that the first biopsy that was performed on you to see whether you had breast cancer was performed after April 2006? < ...
A nightmare scenario. You are representing the foreign plaintiffs suing Texaco and Chevron for cancer caused by their Ecuadorian oil operations, and one your clients testify as follows: Q: Ms. [plaintiff], isn’t it true that the first biopsy that was…
The text of H.R. 3013, The Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007, which was passed by House on Tuesday and which reverses the Holder/Thompson/McNulty Memo, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c110:./temp/~c1107lxBfV. You can keep track of the status of the legislation in the Senate and with the President at http://www.govtrack.us/congre ...
The text of H.R. 3013, The Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007, which was passed by House on Tuesday and which reverses the Holder/Thompson/McNulty Memo, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c110:./temp/~c1107lxBfV. You can keep track of the status of the legislation…
It is not often that a civil RICO complaint brought by the federal government against a union with a checkered history is dismissed on pleading grounds, but that is what happened in Brooklyn Federal Court on November 1, 2007. The Government’s Amended Complaint in United States v. Int’l Longshoremen’s Ass’n, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80924 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. ...
It is not often that a civil RICO complaint brought by the federal government against a union with a checkered history is dismissed on pleading grounds, but that is what happened in Brooklyn Federal Court on November 1, 2007. The…
A new article summarizing significant case law developments this year under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1961 ff., has been posted on the Recent Articles page (title: RICO Developments 2007). It does not address the Supreme Court' s opinion in Wilkie v. Robbins, 127 S. Ct. 2588 (2007), because that is really a Hobbs A ...
A new article summarizing significant case law developments this year under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1961 ff., has been posted on the Recent Articles page (title: RICO Developments 2007). It does not address the…
If you call it ‛spoliation“ when someone destroys or fails to preserve evidence, what do you call it when someone ignores a duty to create evidence and, by doing so, impedes the factfinding process? That was the question for Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in Ramirez v. Pride Devel. & Constr. Corp. 244 F.R.D. 162 (E.D.N.Y. 2007). Answer: Equally sanc ...
If you call it ‛spoliation“ when someone destroys or fails to preserve evidence, what do you call it when someone ignores a duty to create evidence and, by doing so, impedes the factfinding process? That was the question for Magistrate…
As of November 10, 2007, less than six months after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 127 S. Ct. 1955 (2007), a LEXIS search reveals that the opinion has been cited in more than 2,000 cases. Rarely, I suspect, to the benefit of the plaintiff. ...
As of November 10, 2007, less than six months after the Supreme Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 127 S. Ct. 1955 (2007), a LEXIS search reveals that the opinion has been cited in more than 2,000 cases. Rarely,…

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