Navigate Litigation 2.0

California bar regulators are escalating efforts to address the worst ethical side-effects of artificial intelligence tools in legal services delivery. Under proposed changes to that state’s code of professional conduct, broad ethical demands that lawyers demonstrate competence, candor, and confidentiality will be joined by seven explicit admonitions regarding one particular technology: artificial intelligence. The State…

Clients dissembling in depositions place their lawyers in a difficult position, a situation we’ve noted in a prior article. Does the lawyer’s obligation to preserve client confidences protect the client’s false statement from immediate exposure? Or does the lawyer’s duty of candor to the tribunal override any ethical obligations to the client? D.C. Bar Ethics…

Medical records win and lose civil cases. They corroborate testimony, quantify damages, and often compel early settlements. However, medical records are protected by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and, in many states, by state-level health privacy protections as well. For this reason, litigators seeking medical records during pretrial discovery encounter hurdles…

The two largest judicial districts in Florida will now require lawyers to certify whether artificial intelligence was used in any fashion to create pleadings filed in their courts. Legal research and document drafting, both common uses of generative artificial intelligence, are covered by the certification requirement, as are discovery materials such as deposition summaries. The…

February 16 is the end of the public comment period on recently proposed federal rule changes affecting remote testimony and remote depositions. The rules revisions would make clear that federal trial courts have authority to order nonparties to give remote trial testimony from locations within 100 miles of their residence or employment address. The rules…

Hola! from Puerto Rico, where that U.S. territory’s Senate recently advanced legislation modernizing how lawyers obtain witness depositions across state lines. According to the Uniform Law Commission, a bill adopting the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act was approved by the Senate’s judicial committee on Jan. 19. If adopted, Senate Bill 765 would amend Puerto Rico’s…