Drive Better Outcomes

Incivility during contentious depositions is not a new topic for this blog. While the available evidence indicates that professionalism toward legal adversaries is on the rise, the topic of overbearing behavior during depositions continues to attract attention from bar regulators and members of the judiciary. Two Illinois trial judges recently offered their advice on how…

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…

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…