Drive Better Outcomes

A recent blog described the times when litigators are required to translate into English foreign-language documents exchanged during pretrial discovery, an increasing obligation driven by the global reach of modern multinational corporations and online business activities. Similar forces are at work in the area of service of process. More than ever, U.S.-based litigators are filing…

The emergence of artificial intelligence as a critical legal technology has prompted discussions among law firm leaders regarding how AI usage should be disclosed to clients and who – the law firm or the client – should benefit from any resulting cost savings. While artificial intelligence technologies will undoubtedly play a role in minimizing litigation…

If we can do weddings, funerals, healthcare, work, and trials via videoconference, surely we can do the same with depositions. And with that closing remark, a federal magistrate judge summarily dispatched one litigant’s demand that her opponent be ordered to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to sit for an in-person deposition. The case, McCabe v.…

In an age when nearly everyone carries on their person a tiny recording device in the form of a smartphone, the question of whether it is lawful to surreptitiously record conversations with others comes up often. One never knows when an accurate and credible record of a conversation might be useful. In all but a…

Experienced litigators are familiar with the tension between the federal legal system’s policy favoring liberal pretrial discovery into all relevant matters and the countervailing policy forbidding discovery that is oppressive or imposes an undue burden or expense. One situation in modern litigation where this tension frequently arises is when a party is concerned that the…

If the word “Shaq” conjures up the image of professional basketball legend and amiable IcyHot liniment pitchman Shaquille O’Neal, you could be missing out on a valuable mnemonic device for preparing witnesses for deposition: Short Honest Answers to Appropriate Questions, or SHAQ. In a deposition, a short answer gives the other side as little to…