Podcast - A Tortured Journey with the Lying Witness
The appeals process for Bankruptcy Court cases in New Jersey is on track to change in the coming year. On June 24, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey released proposed amendments to its local civil...more
Court rules typically govern, among other things, court procedures, filing requirements, and timelines/deadlines for filing papers. Failing to comply with court rules and procedures can lead to serious and potentially costly...more
Apple has escaped a $300 million patent infringement verdict after a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated both the infringement and damages judgment because of faulty jury...more
Many class actions take several years to litigate. Some may take even longer, because they sit idle for months or—in some cases—decades. In late 2024 and in early 2025, the Ontario Court of Appeal issued two decisions...more
In the recent case of Bank, et al. v. Lee, the New Jersey Appellate Division addressed a significant procedural issue regarding the timing for parties to file a motion to dismiss pursuant to New Jersey Court Rule 4:6-2(e)....more
Jordan v. Lynde, 330 A.3d 817 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2024) - The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that the trial court abused its discretion by failing to grant the appellants the 30-day response period required under Pa. R.Civ.P....more
The rule seems simple enough: Attorneys defending a witness during a deposition may instruct the witness not to answer questions only for the purpose of protecting privileged information. And yet, if the number of trial court...more
I remember listening to Justice Frank Cleckley of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, my professor for Evidence, open his first lecture with a discussion of Federal Rule of Evidence 103. As a young law student, I was...more
Senate Bill 999 has passed the Senate and been reported out of the Civil Subcommittee from the House Courts of Justice Committee. The bill, if passed by the House and signed by the Governor, would have two important...more
Ever had to explain to a client why a sweet win in the lower courts doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s time to dig in and eat? In City of Martinsville, VA v. Express Scripts, a Fourth Circuit majority opinion used a...more
Attorneys love rules. And our adversarial legal system functions best when both sides understand and follow common rules. So one Maryland appellate rule has always confounded me because it is routinely construed as meaning...more
2024 was an active year in the class action arena. In this post, our Litigation group in Toronto discusses noteworthy developments over the past twelve months. While our focus is on cases and other developments affecting...more
In Barbiero v Pollack, 2024 ONCA 904 (Barbiero) the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld the motion judge’s dismissal of a class proceeding for delay under Rule 24.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The plaintiff had not set...more
The Court of Appeal has clarified the requirements to be satisfied before obtaining a freezing injunction, affirming an attainable merits threshold is to be preferred over a more stringent alternative. Any perceived tilt in...more
One of the known challenges in litigation against defendants domiciled outside the EU is effecting service. In some instances, this can take a very long time, due to the formal requirements and slowness of the respective...more
Relatively few consumer class action cases reach trial; most are settled or resolved through motion practice. The paucity of cases tried to judgment makes it notable when, as in the case discussed here, one goes all the way...more
There are two approaches for determining whether a decision is final or interlocutory: the "application test" or the "order test". For the purpose of an application for permission to appeal from the Court of Appeal of the...more
In an opinion written in under 1,000 words, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal put foreclosure cases across Florida in jeopardy in Desbrunes v. U.S. Bank National Association in February. Originally published in...more
In a less-than-thousand-word opinion, the Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida put foreclosure cases across Florida in jeopardy. Namely, in all foreclosure cases in which a borrower is deceased, unless the legal...more
I. THE USE OF REMOTE PROCEEDINGS IN CIVIL PRACTICE - The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on civil litigation in Illinois, particularly by increasing the use of remote proceedings in Illinois circuit courts. A....more
Q: I am a defendant in a receivership, where the receiver has moved to sell my property. If the court approves the sale, I want to appeal. My attorney says an order approving the sale cannot be directly appealed and I will...more
Judges and jurists alike champion the notion that rehearings should be used sparingly and only when the conditions are just right. A lesser known concept is that sometimes a motion for rehearing is absolutely necessary to...more
Is there a limit on the number of times the federal government can request extensions of the 60-day period under seal to decide whether to intervene in a qui tam relator's False Claims Act (FCA) case? The appellants in U.S....more
First Appellate Decision. In In re Troy S. Poe Trust, a co-trustee of a trust filed suit to modify the trust to increase the number of trustees and change the method for trustees to vote on issues as well as other...more
On September 7 the District of Columbia Court of Appeals reached an important issue about the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act that it had reserved a few months earlier. In Banks v. Hoffman, the Court held “the discovery-limiting aspects...more