Drive Better Outcomes

The Washington Supreme Court recently approved significant revisions to that state’s procedural rules on remote depositions. Revised Rule 30 of the Washington Civil Rules will now allow remote depositions to be noticed without leave of court, subject to a very short time window for filing objections. The new rules also contain detailed restrictions on attorney…

“A review of the transcript demonstrates that Grosso’s deposition was a waste of time.” A fair reading of the facts set out in Phillips Auctioneers LLC v Grosso, 2024 NY Slip Op 33906 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. Cty., Oct. 31, 2024), a contract dispute, suggests that both the witness and his attorney were determined to make…

Last week’s blog touched briefly on the need to provide appellate courts with an adequate record of trial court proceedings that are the subject of an appeal. Without an adequate record – in almost all cases, a verbatim written record – there is no way for any litigant to successfully appeal an unlawful trial court…

The conclusion of the baseball season is an apt occasion to reflect on the wisdom of New York Yankee great Yogi Berra’s remark, “You can observe a lot by watching.” What Berra meant to say, we imagine, is that close observation of anything will yield valuable insights and strategic advantage over inattentive participants in the…

The post-pandemic litigation environment has seen a rising desire to conduct depositions remotely and a diminishing opposition to remote proceedings. Where litigators do insist on in-person proceedings, those cases are largely confined to special circumstances where in-person proceedings are believed to have a critical impact on litigation objectives. Disputes are uncommon: negotiations occur, and depositions…

Many lawyers today are wrestling with the question of whether they should inform clients that artificial intelligence technologies are being used on their case matters. Ethical advice from state bar regulators has been slowly accumulating for the past several years, but there is as of yet no definitive answer. Legally significant artificial intelligence tools, along…