Litigation & Trial

Recent Posts from Litigation & Trial

• Partial Judicial Immunity Granted To Corrupt Luzerne County Judges

  Following up on my post of two weeks ago on judicial immunity in the "kids for cash" Luzerne County scandal, Judge Caputo of the Middle District of Pennsylvania issued his ruling yesterday, which holds in pertinent part: For…

• Are You Being Properly Joined And Served? Plaintiffs Are Winning The 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b) Removal Debate

  "Removal" is the process by which a defendant in a state court case "removes" the case to federal court. 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b) makes it sound so simple: Any civil action of which the district courts…

• The Simple Solution To Judicial Immunity In The Luzerne County Corruption Case

  Ashby Jones at the Wall Street Journal reports on absolute judicial immunity: In January, federal prosecutors filed fraud charges against Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, judges on the Luzerne County, Pa., Court of…

• A Panoply Of Cases On The Plain Meaning Rule In The Third Circuit

  One of the positive parts of being involved with The Philadelphia Inquirer's bankruptcy is, though I've had to slog my way through over 1,500 separate filings (most of which are irrelevant to my clients) since…

• Jones v. Harris Brings Out Another Harvard Law Professor Who Knows More About Writing Columns Than Litigating Cases

  [Updated to clarify a distinction between securities suits and investment company act suits.] This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Jones v. Harris. Briefly, the Oakmark complex of mutual funds "hired" Harris Associates as…

• Does Copyright Law Care If James Cameron's Avatar Ripped Off Parts Of "Call Me Joe?"

  The sharp readers of io9, themselves a collective Library of Alexandria of science fiction, noted surprising common elements between James Cameron's Avatar and a 1957 short story by Poul Anderson, "Call Me Joe:" Like Avatar,…

• Don't Make Your Contracts Apply "Throughout the Universe"

  The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog points us to a WSJ story on the absurd language used in copyright contracts these days: Decked out in sequined black and gold dresses, Anne Harrison and the other women…

• Wachtell, Bank of America, and The Limits of Advocacy

  I have no problem criticizing Bank of America for deceptive conduct or blaming Wachtell for the failure of a legal stategy, but there's nothing obviously wrong with this: Eric Roth, a litigation partner at Wachtell,…

• Why It's Hard For BigLaw Associates To Start Rainmaking

  Two days ago, Ashby Jones at the WSJ Law Blog approvingly cited these remarks in Legal Week by Alex Novarese: [W]hat surprised me was that there appeared to be a consistent anxiety regarding the pressures or…

• If You're "Not Certain" You'll Be Joined To An Existing Lawsuit, Tell Your Insurance Carrier About It Anyway

  Really, you should: The New York Court of Appeals held Pepper Hamilton had a duty to disclose in advance to the insurers the firm's potential involvement in litigation concerning fraudulent loan securitization activities by its…