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.

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.
Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Complex Lit Blog

Sanctions — Vexatious Litigants — Sample Order

‛The right of access to the courts is neither absolute nor unconditional and the Constitution confers no right to prosecute frivolous or malicious actions.“ Zhu v. Federal Housing Finance Board, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32398 (D. Kan. May 1, 2007). In Zhu, District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil sets forth the five factor test applied in the Tenth Circui ...
‛The right of access to the courts is neither absolute nor unconditional and the Constitution confers no right to prosecute frivolous or malicious actions.“ Zhu v. Federal Housing Finance Board, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32398 (D. Kan. May 1, 2007).…
Continue Reading

Class Action Fairness Act — Mass Actions

The Eleventh Circuit exhaustively analyzed the mass action provisions of CAFA in Lowery v. Alabama Power Co., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 8289 (11th Cir. 2007). Its key holdings: [1] One Defendant Removes Entire Action as to All Defendants. ‛[I]n light of the plain language of CAFA, removal under the statute encompasses all the claims in the 'acti ...
The Eleventh Circuit exhaustively analyzed the mass action provisions of CAFA in Lowery v. Alabama Power Co., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 8289 (11th Cir. 2007). Its key holdings: [1] One Defendant Removes Entire Action as to All Defendants. ‛[I]n light…
Continue Reading

Document Requests — ‛Possession, Custody or Control“

Party A serves a document request on Party B. Party B has the unconditional right, by contract, to obtain responsive documents held by Party C. Are the documents held by Party C in Party B’s ‛possession, custody or control“ within the meaning of Fed.R.Civ.P. 34? Under the analysis of District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in United States v. Stein, 2007 ...
Party A serves a document request on Party B. Party B has the unconditional right, by contract, to obtain responsive documents held by Party C. Are the documents held by Party C in Party B’s ‛possession, custody or control“ within…
Continue Reading

RICO — Association-In-Fact Enterprises

The Ninth Circuit issued an en banc opinion on May 4, 2007, in Odom v. Microsoft Corp., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 10519 (9th Cir. May 4, 2007) ‛to correct and clarify our case law“ on the meaning of an association-in-fact enterprise. Key holdings: 1. No Separate Structure Requirement. Noting that four circuits require that an a ...
The Ninth Circuit issued an en banc opinion on May 4, 2007, in Odom v. Microsoft Corp., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 10519 (9th Cir. May 4, 2007) ‛to correct and clarify our case law“ on the meaning of an association-in-fact…
Continue Reading

Sanctions — Rule 11 / § 1927 Violation as Affirmative Defense or Counterclaim

The defendant in Crow v. Wolpoff & Abramson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31356 (D. Minn. April 19, 2007), a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, was so incensed by the complaint that it filed an affirmative defense asserting that the action was brought in bad in violation of Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 and 28 U.S.C. § 1927. The plaintiff moved to strike the affirmative ...
The defendant in Crow v. Wolpoff & Abramson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31356 (D. Minn. April 19, 2007), a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, was so incensed by the complaint that it filed an affirmative defense asserting that the…
Continue Reading

Improper Argument and Remarks at Trial — Sanctions

Feelings often run high at trial, and they ran high enough in Maday v. Public Libraries of Saginaw, 480 F.3d 815 (6th Cir. 2007), that the issue was whether a mistrial was required. Defense counsel in this employment-related case began her opening statement with a derogatory reference to the length of the opening of plaintiff’s counsel: ...
Feelings often run high at trial, and they ran high enough in Maday v. Public Libraries of Saginaw, 480 F.3d 815 (6th Cir. 2007), that the issue was whether a mistrial was required. Defense counsel in this employment-related case began…
Continue Reading

Expert Witnesses — Late Designation — Preclusion or Admission?

As Judge Patrick Higginbotham writes for the Court in Betzel v. State Farm Lloyd's, 480 F.3d 704 (5th Cir. 2007), the Fifth Circuit applies a four-factor test in reviewing, for abuse of discretion, a District Court’s decision to exclude expert testimony as a sanction for belated designation of expert witnesses in violation of a pretrial order: ‛(1) th ...
As Judge Patrick Higginbotham writes for the Court in Betzel v. State Farm Lloyd’s, 480 F.3d 704 (5th Cir. 2007), the Fifth Circuit applies a four-factor test in reviewing, for abuse of discretion, a District Court’s decision to exclude expert…
Continue Reading

Daubert — Economic Expert Testimony — Ghostwriting Expert Reports

District Judge Barbara Crabb addressed a series of Daubert motions directed at economic expert testimony in Southwire Co. v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30294 (W.D. Wis. April 24, 2007), an antitrust action for, inter alia, price fixing in the copper market. The details of the testimony are complicated, but several of the holdings are ...
District Judge Barbara Crabb addressed a series of Daubert motions directed at economic expert testimony in Southwire Co. v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30294 (W.D. Wis. April 24, 2007), an antitrust action for, inter alia,…
Continue Reading

Purged Email — Authentication

Email doesn’t linger. It is stored or it evaporates. The government realized this a little late in United States v. Culberson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31044 (E.D. Mich. April 27, 2007), a drug conspiracy prosecution. The DEA executed a search warrant to obtain, inter alia, the defendant’s cell phone. The DEA agent found email found on the phone. He te ...
Email doesn’t linger. It is stored or it evaporates. The government realized this a little late in United States v. Culberson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31044 (E.D. Mich. April 27, 2007), a drug conspiracy prosecution. The DEA executed a search…
Continue Reading

Res Judicata/Collateral Estoppel — Preclusive Effect of Foreign Criminal Conviction

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 ...
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…
Continue Reading
Previous498499500501502503504Next

Recent Posts

Supreme Court: A Rule 41(a) Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice = A Final Proceeding Within Rule 60(b) — Advisory Committee Notes Are “A Reliable Source Of Insight Into The Meaning Of A Rule” — Prior to Dismissal or Entry of Judgment, A District Court May Always Rehear and Reconsider Prior Rulings

Rule 37(c)(1) Sanctions — Exclusion of Untimely Expert Report — Burden Is On Noncompliant Party to Prove Harmlessness — Court Need Not Hold Hearing If Noncompliant Party Fails to Argue Harmlessness, Even When Exclusion Is Tantamount to Dismissal

RICO: (1) Continuity: 4th Circuit Factors — (2) 4th Circuit Reserves RICO Liability for Unlawful Activities That Pose A Special Threat to Social Well-Being — (3) For Purposes of Determining Closed-Ended Continuity, Even Time-Barred Conduct Considered — (4) No Open-Ended Continuity If Racketeering Activity Has Built-In Ending Point — (5) Unlike General Federal Conspiracy, RICO Conspiracy Doesn’t Require Each Defendant to Perform an Overt Act in Furtherance of the Conspiracy

Whether Party Waived Arbitration by Litigating Is a Question for the Court, Not the Arbitrator

RICO: (1) Assignability of RICO Claims Uncertain — (2) Declining to Decide Whether Indirect-Purchaser Rule Applies to RICO (Given the Directness Requirement, How Much Does It Matter?) — (3) Two Types of Directness of Injury in Proximate Cause Analysis — (4) Proximate Cause As a Court Not Jury Issue in the First Instance

(1) RICO Pattern: Open-Ended Continuity — The Vendetta Exception — Jury Could Reasonably Infer That Scheme Directed at One Person, With Goal of Destroying His Current and Future Business Prospects, Presented A Threat of Continued Racketeering Activity Extending Indefinitely into the Future — Lawsuit’s “Fortuitous Interruption” of Scheme ≠ Lack of Threat of Continuing Racketeering Activity — Acts of Concealment Used to Perpetuate Violations — Multiple Schemes Not Required — Jury Could Judge Defendant’s Credibility in Assessing Threat of Continuing Criminal Activity — (2) RICO Conspiracy — Two Methods of Proof: Agreement to Overall Objective Or to Commit Predicate Acts — Agreement Can Be Inferred from Conduct — Conspirator Needn’t Know All Details, Have Contact with Other Conspirators Or Participate in Every Stage

Experts: “Normally, Courts Are Loath to Outright Dismiss An Expert” (Good Quote) — Experts Are Unhelpful If They Misstate the Law [Note Premise That Testimony on Law Not Precluded Outright] — Rule 37 Sanctions Unwarranted for Unjustifiable Failure to Produce Relevant Document Already in Requester’s Possession

FRAP 38 Sanctions: (1) Pressing Objectively Frivolous Arguments, Multiple Misstatements at Oral Argument and Failure to Address What District Judge Said Warrant Award against Appellants’ Counsel (Only) — (2) “General Award” of $5,000 Warranted Where Appellee Failed to Sufficiently Document Its Fees and Expenses [Goodyear v. Haegar Issue]]

RICO: Capital Call Investment Process Increasing Equity of Those Responding to Call at Expense of Those Not Responding ≠ Collection of An Unlawful Debt

RICO [And Constitutional] Standing: Concrete Injury Requirement Not Satisfied by Alleged Intangible Injuries of Intrusion Upon Seclusion, Confusion And Emotional Distress, Public Disclosure of Private Facts, Deterred Speech On Nondefamatory Matters, Violation Of First Amendment Rights, And Compulsion

Archives
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.

New York Office

© 2025 Joseph Hage Aaronson LLC  
Disclaimer | Attorney Advertising Notice | Legal Notice