Litigation Insights

Analysis and practical guides on litigation.

199 articles, checklists, and guides on litigation law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

LitigationRegulatory Compliance

Defending a Professional License Before a State Board

A professional license is frequently a person's entire livelihood, and a board complaint threatens it through a process that resembles litigation only partially. The board is investigator, prosecutor, and adjudicator; the rules of evidence are relaxed; the standard of proof may be lower than in civil court; and the collateral consequences of any discipline — database reporting, reciprocal action in other states, exclusion from federal health programs, loss of privileges and insurance — frequently exceed the sanction itself. This guide walks the process from the arrival of the complaint through judicial review, explains what to do and what not to do in the investigative phase where most cases are decided, covers settlement and the terms that matter, and addresses the collateral consequences that should shape every strategic decision. It closes with rehabilitation and reinstatement, and with the practices that prevent a complaint from becoming a career-ending event.

Casey Scott McKayJune 19, 202426 min read

LitigationDepositions

Defending a Deposition Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Defending a deposition is one of the most consequential and least understood skills in civil litigation, because harmful testimony can decide a case on summary judgment or in settlement long before trial. This checklist walks defending counsel through the arc from the witness preparation session to the errata sheet: preparing the witness within the ethical line that separates legitimate preparation from improper coaching, controlling the record, making proper concise objections under Rule 30(c)(2) and the distinction between form and substance, knowing the three narrow grounds for instructing a witness not to answer, navigating the rules on conferring with the witness, defending the Rule 30(b)(6) corporate designee and the expert, terminating an abusive deposition under Rule 30(d)(3), and handling transcript review and the errata sheet. Each phase is paired with the reason it matters and the case law — anchored by Hall v. Clifton Precision — that punishes obstruction.

Casey Scott McKayJune 7, 202410 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Litigation Hold and Evidence Preservation Checklist: A Practical Checklist

The duty to preserve evidence attaches when litigation is reasonably anticipated, which is usually before anyone has filed anything and often before counsel is retained. This checklist covers the whole lifecycle: recognizing the trigger and documenting it, scoping custodians and systems, issuing a hold notice that people can actually act on, executing the technical suspensions that make the notice real, and maintaining and releasing the hold. It gives particular attention to the sources that cause most modern spoliation findings, including collaboration platforms with short default retention, ephemeral messaging, personal devices, departed employees whose laptops are reimaged on a thirty-day cycle, and third-party cloud data. Each phase is paired with the reason it matters and the authority behind it.

Casey Scott McKayMay 28, 20249 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Rule 45 Subpoenas to Nonparties: Service, Objections, and Motions to Quash

A subpoena is the only discovery device that reaches someone who is not in the lawsuit, and that fact drives every rule that governs it. The person receiving it has no stake in the case, did not choose to be involved, and is entitled to protection from significant expense — which is why Rule 45 contains a compliance geography, a fourteen-day objection window, a mandatory duty on the issuing lawyer to avoid undue burden, and a sanctions provision that gets used. This article covers issuance and service, the place-of-compliance rules that trip up experienced practitioners, how to object and when objecting alone is enough, motions to quash and to compel and where they must be filed, cost-shifting, privilege assertions, and the special regimes for banks, health care providers, and electronic communications providers. It closes with practical guidance for both sides.

Casey Scott McKayMay 21, 202426 min read

LitigationSanctions

Rule 11 and Inherent-Power Sanctions: The Safe Harbor, Fee Awards, and Attorney Conduct

Sanctions practice is governed by four overlapping sources of authority that do different things, and conflating them is the most common reason sanctions motions fail. Rule 11 reaches papers filed with the court and carries a mandatory safe harbor that defeats most motions on procedure alone; Rule 26(g) and Rule 37 govern discovery, where Rule 11 does not apply; Section 1927 reaches attorneys who multiply proceedings vexatiously; and the court's inherent power reaches bad-faith conduct anywhere, subject to a causation limit the Supreme Court imposed in Goodyear. This article separates them, explains what a reasonable inquiry actually requires, walks through the safe harbor step by step, and covers the fee-award mechanics that determine what a sanction is worth. It closes with the fastest-growing category of sanctions in American courts: filings containing citations that do not exist.

Casey Scott McKayMay 19, 202424 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Rule 26 Initial Disclosures and Discovery Planning: A Practical Checklist

Initial disclosures and the Rule 26(f) conference are the front end of federal discovery, and the cheapest place to either set a case up for success or sow the seeds of later sanctions. This checklist walks through preserving evidence, mapping the case to the elements, preparing and serving Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures, conferring under Rule 26(f), and building the written discovery plan the parties submit before the Rule 16 scheduling conference. It incorporates the December 1, 2025 amendments that push privilege-log method and timing to the outset, explains why an FRE 502(d) order belongs in every plan, and flags the proportionality and certification traps that catch the unwary. Use it alongside our discovery refresher and privilege-log checklist. It is general information, not legal advice; always check your court's local rules and standing orders.

Casey Scott McKayMay 10, 202410 min read

LitigationPersonal Injury

Handling a Personal Injury Claim Without a Lawyer: A Practical Guide

Not every injury claim needs a lawyer, and not every claim can be handled without one. This guide draws the line honestly, then walks through the entire self-handled claim: what to do in the first week, how to open and document a claim with each insurer, how to obtain and read your own medical records, how to build a demand package that an adjuster can actually approve, how to negotiate, and how to close a claim safely with a release you understand. It explains the traps that cost self-represented claimants the most money — recorded statements, early releases, treatment gaps, unresolved liens, and missed deadlines — and gives concrete scripts and templates. It closes with the specific warning signs that mean you should stop and hire counsel today.

Casey Scott McKayMay 9, 202429 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Federal Civil Litigation Toolkit: A Roadmap and Resource Guide

This toolkit is a high-level roadmap through a federal civil lawsuit from first client call to appeal, designed for litigators, in-house counsel, and small-business defendants who need to understand the whole arc and where each task fits. It walks each phase—case evaluation, pre-suit demand, pleadings and filings, service of process, discovery, motions, trial, post-trial, and appeal—and at every step links to detailed mclaw.io checklists and articles plus the governing Federal Rules and the research tools (PACER, CourtListener, uscourts.gov) practitioners actually use. It is a navigation guide to the process and its resources, not a substitute for jurisdiction-specific advice; local rules and standing orders vary by court and judge. Use it to orient a new matter, to brief a client on what is coming, or to find the right deeper resource at the moment a particular task lands on the calendar.

Casey Scott McKayApril 20, 202415 min read

LitigationDepositions

The Art of Defending Depositions in Federal Court: A Comprehensive Guide

Defending a deposition in federal court is one of the most consequential and least understood skills in civil litigation, because harmful testimony can decide a case on summary judgment or in settlement long before trial. This comprehensive guide explains the defending attorney's role from the witness preparation session through the errata sheet, with close attention to the ethical line between legitimate preparation and improper coaching. It analyzes the objection regime of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(c)(2) -- objections noted on the record while examination proceeds, the distinction between form and substance, and the prohibition on speaking and suggestive objections under Hall v. Clifton Precision. It covers the three narrow grounds for instructing a witness not to answer, the contested question of whether counsel may confer with a witness during questioning, the special burdens of defending a Rule 30(b)(6) corporate witness, an expert, or a high-level executive, the Fifth Amendment in civil depositions, the circuit split over substantive errata corrections, the mechanics of terminating or limiting an abusive deposition under Rule 30(d)(3), and the procedural skirmishes that precede the testimony -- short-notice depositions, second depositions, Rule 29 stipulations, and the "no knowledge" witness. Worked dialogue examples illustrate each principle, and the article closes with a defending-counsel checklist, an FAQ, and key takeaways for litigators and clients alike.

Casey Scott McKayApril 18, 202461 min read

LitigationClass Actions

Class Action Defense Toolkit: From Complaint Through Settlement Approval

A class action is a different animal from an ordinary case because the certification decision, not the merits, usually determines the outcome. This toolkit is organized around that fact. It covers the first thirty days, including the removal analysis under the Class Action Fairness Act and the preservation and hold obligations that attach immediately, then the early motions that can end or reshape the case, the discovery strategy that builds a certification record rather than a merits record, and the certification fight itself, element by element, with attention to the damages model requirement that has decided many cases. Later stages cover interlocutory appeal, the decision framework for settlement, and the approval process, which since the 2018 amendments requires the parties to give the court a real evidentiary basis rather than a stipulation.

Casey Scott McKayApril 12, 202415 min read

LitigationSpeech and Media

Anti-SLAPP Statutes and Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation

An anti-SLAPP statute is an unusual piece of machinery: a procedural device that lets a defendant test the merits of a claim before discovery, shifts fees to the prevailing defendant as a matter of right, and in many states permits an immediate appeal from denial. It exists because a certain kind of lawsuit is filed to impose cost rather than to win, and ordinary procedure handles that badly. The statutes vary enormously — California's is expansive and heavily litigated, several states have adopted the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, and a dozen states have nothing at all — which makes forum and choice of law unusually consequential. This article explains the two-step framework, the exemptions that swallow more than practitioners expect, the unresolved question of whether these statutes apply in federal court, and how to use one without triggering the fee award yourself.

Casey Scott McKayApril 6, 202426 min read

LitigationOther Specialist Litigation

Defamation, Business Disparagement, and Online Reviews

Every business eventually confronts a review, a post, or a statement that is false and damaging, and the instinct to sue is almost always stronger than the case. This article explains what defamation law actually requires and what it does not reach. It covers the elements, the crucial line between fact and opinion, and the fault standards that turn on whether the plaintiff is a public figure, a limited purpose public figure, or a private person. It then covers damages, including the per se categories that dispense with proof of loss, and the adjacent torts of trade libel and tortious interference that often fit a business dispute better. Later sections address the practical realities of online speech: Section 230's protection for platforms, the procedure for unmasking anonymous speakers, anti-SLAPP statutes and their fee-shifting consequences, retraction statutes, the Consumer Review Fairness Act, and why injunctions are rarely available, with a worked example, a response playbook, and an FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 23, 202425 min read