Just a few months ago we blogged about cloned discovery pointing out that in a world of already asymmetrical discovery burdens on defendants, allowing plaintiffs to magnify that discrepancy by forcing defendants to reproduce discovery from prior cases is an abusive process. We stand by that position and are happy to add to the list
When a lawsuit settles, both sides get something. When one of our cases settles, one of the things we get is a raft of mixed emotions. Undeniably, there is a sense of relief. Three weeks of 20 hour days suddenly open up. We can go home. (That sounds a little funny now that we are
We’ve discussed before how we expect genetic testing of plaintiffs to become routine in prescription medical product liability litigation. The cost of such testing is constantly plummeting, even more steeply than would be predicted by Moore’s Law. We even proposed a rule of federal procedure to govern the conditions under which such testing could
Mandamus appeals are difficult to win. That’s one reason that we were intrigued to read In re Williams-Sonoma, Inc., ___ F.3d ___, 2020 WL 131360 (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2020). The second was the result, which prevented an improper would-be class representative from using discovery as a bootstrap method to his own replacement. The
Someone asked us the other day whether spoliation sanctions could lie against a non-party for alleged loss/destruction of electronically stored information sought through a third-party subpoena. On the one hand, assuming there is personal jurisdiction, the substantive discovery rules do not vary between parties and non-litigants subjected to valid subpoenas. On the other hand,
Picture this. Invitations go out for a Thanksgiving get-together and the host and expected guests together sort out who will bring what foods and how everything will be served. A sideboard is loaded up with the traditional holiday foods, along with a collection of everyone’s quirky favorite salad items to allow easy compilation of a
Recently, Bexis was contacted by a reporter who had read the blog’s post on ghostwriting. Bexis explained that people at the top of any profession – medical, legal, engineering, whatever – have more reasons opportunities to publish than they could possibly have time to write from scratch on their own. Judges have law clerks,
We like preemption and we dislike expensive discovery. In Gale v. Mentor Worldwide, LLC, 2019 WL 2567790 (D. Kansas June 21, 2019), the court felt the same way we do, and did something about it.
The plaintiff in Gale sued for injuries allegedly sustained as a result of silicone breast implants. The complaint contained
We’ve repeatedly advocated that defendants try turn the e-discovery tables on plaintiffs whenever possible – particularly in MDLs where discovery is flagrantly one-sided – by going after plaintiffs’ social media information. In just about every case involving allegations of personal injuries, social media will have admissions by plaintiffs concerning their conditions and activities that concern
The next line of the song goes . . . But if you try sometimes you might find, You get what you need. We like the line. We like the song. We like The Stones. Maybe the Federal Rules Advisory Committee was listening to the tune in 2015 when it decided proportionality needed to be