Navigate Litigation 2.0

Virtual trials are different from in-person trials. They demand technology that is unfamiliar to many and a new approach to trial advocacy, where the litigator’s voice and physical presence have been replaced by a video transmission that is, in many cases, substantially outside of the litigator’s control. Some attorneys are mastering this new litigation environment,…

The legal community’s forced apprenticeship with remote technology during the COVID-19 pandemic changed, almost overnight, how litigation is conducted in the United States. From mundane interactions like client meetings to courtroom hearings with constitutional significance like arraignments and trials, courts and lawyers have replaced in-person processes with technology-enabled, socially distant substitutes wherever feasible and lawful.…

Did you notice that in-person depositions and remote depositions traded places in 2020? Legally speaking, that is. When 2020 began, in-person depositions were the default means of obtaining pretrial testimony. Remote depositions were possible, of course, but only by stipulation or court order. As 2020 ends, the situation is reversed. Remote depositions — widely encouraged…

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, a cranky cultural observer who believed human beings were doomed to an existence no more fulfilling than the lives of moles, was nevertheless clear-eyed about the value of civility. Willful incivility, Schopenhauer wrote, is as foolish as setting your house on fire. For litigators, incivility during a deposition can have…

The push and pull of direct client feedback is a strong indicator of where the practice of law is, or should be, heading. As we recently described in this post on in-house legal departments’ impression of outside law firm performance during the COVID-19 epidemic, corporate consumers of legal services now expect their litigators and advisers…

When weighing liability risks arising from employees contracting COVID-19 at the workplace, many employers instinctively turn to the liability waiver, a document that — in theory — will protect the employer against lawsuits for damages if COVID-19 is contracted on the job. But there are problems with waivers. In the first place, contractual waivers of…