| Piecing
together the e-discovery plan
Craig Ball
Electronic discovery may
be the most challenging type of discovery you’ll do—and
it will only be harder if you’re squabbling over the basics
with defense counsel. Start with a meet-and-confer session to
determine what you’re looking for, what data and metadata
are relevant to the case, how the data should be preserved,
and other questions you need to have answered before you can
start your search.
Keep discovery civil
Mark Kosieradzki and Kara Rahimi
When discovery requests are met with abusive, evasive, and
Rambo-like tactics, and courts are reluctant to intervene, what’s
a lawyer to do? Brush up on case law and the rules of evidence,
and don’t let defense counsel get away with boilerplate
objections or blanket claims of privilege. Knowing the rules
can help you make the discovery bullies back down.
De-escalate the expert discovery
wars
Eric T. Chaffin
The American Bar Association is considering amendments to Rule
26 that would preclude discovery of attorney-expert communications
and draft expert reports. The changes haven’t been adopted
yet, but you can achieve similar results now by negotiating
with defense counsel to limit expert discovery. Here’s
how (and why) you can create a win-win agreement.
Taking exceptional depositions
Phillip H. Miller
Has taking depositions become a stale routine? If so, it’s
time to refocus your energies and try a new approach. Specific
questioning techniques—exhausting the witness, restating
and summarizing, and boxing in—let you control the pace
of questioning and the type of responses you’ll get. Don’t
let your witnesses derail your deposition. Take charge and get
exceptional results.
Kicking discovery orders upstairs
Wil Fluegel
You may not have to wait until a case is over to raise discovery
issues on appeal. If you’re facing onerous discovery orders
or a trial judge’s abuse of discretion, relief—in
the form of special writs, discretionary appeals, and the collateral
order doctrine—is available. Use these tools to get an
intermediate hearing before the trial, or the damage, is done.
|
Defeat the ‘cat’s
paw’ defense to vicarious liability
Jeffrey L. Needle
Employers in workplace discrimination cases have been dodging
accountability by saying that to establish liability, the worker
must prove that the final decision-maker is a rubber stamp,
or “cat’s paw,” for a biased supervisor. But
courts have found that basic tort and agency laws can dispel
the cat’s-paw defense.
|
News & Trends
Lawsuits challenge new health insurer
tactics to deny claims and benefits
Study links stronger vehicle roof to
lower injury risk
Firing based on interracial relationship
is illegal, Second Circuit says
Bar must keep visibly intoxicated patrons
safe, N.J. court holds
Municipalities wrangle with religion
over zoning laws
Alaska high court OKs disclosure of defense
expert's tax records
Departments
President’s page
A new home for a new AAJ
Supreme Court review
Court upholds lethal injections
Tech brief
Mind the metadata
Good counsel
Hearsay
Justice in motion
New litigation packets highlight spoliation,
Medicare reimbursement claims
After Riegel, AAJ members take
preemption fight to Capitol Hill
Cumberland team wins student trial competition
The war room ramps up rapid-response effort
Books
The Nine: Inside the Secret World
of the Supreme Court by
Jeffrey Toobin
Expert Witnessing and Scientific
Testimony: Surviving in the Courtroom by Kenneth S.
Cohen
Experts & Professional Services
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