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.

LitigationEvidence

Capturing the Web: A Practitioner's Guide to Authenticating Website Screenshots as Evidence in Federal Court

Website screenshots, archived pages, and social media posts now appear in almost every federal case, yet attorneys routinely lose this evidence by failing to lay a foundation. This guide follows a single false-advertising dispute as counsel tries to prove what a competitor's website says today, said two years ago, and admitted in a social media post. It walks through the Rule 901 authentication threshold and the landmark Lorraine v. Markel framework, the methods for authenticating current captures (witness testimony, distinctive characteristics, forensic tools, hash values, and Rule 902(13)/(14) self-authentication), the Wayback Machine problem under Weinhoffer and Gasperini, the attribution challenges of social media after Griffin, Tienda, and Vayner, the best evidence rule for electronically stored information, and the hearsay rules unique to web content. It incorporates the current status of Proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 707 on machine-generated evidence, whose comment period closed in February 2026, and the proposed deepfake rule, Rule 901(c). It ends with a capture-to-courtroom checklist and a practitioner FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 11, 202444 min read

LitigationPersonal Injury

Car Accident and Personal Injury Claims: From the Crash to the Check

Most personal injury claims are not decided by a jury. They are decided by an adjuster reading a file, applying a fault percentage, subtracting liens, and writing a number. This article explains the machinery on both sides of that number: the elements of a negligence claim and how each one is actually proved, the fault-allocation rules that vary enormously between states and can zero out a strong case, the insurance architecture that determines who pays and how much is available, and the lien and reimbursement obligations that quietly consume settlements. It covers the crash-scene and early-treatment decisions that shape a case months before a lawyer sees it, the anatomy of a policy limits demand, and when litigation is worth the delay. It closes with a worked example, an FAQ, and cross-references to related documents.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 17, 202430 min read

LitigationMotions

Summary Judgment Under Rule 56: Winning and Surviving Before Trial

Summary judgment is where most federal civil cases actually end. Rule 56 asks a deceptively simple question: is there a genuine dispute about any fact that matters, and if not, who wins as a matter of law. This article explains how that question is really decided. It covers the burden-shifting framework of Celotex and the difference between a movant who bears the trial burden and one who does not, the materiality and genuineness requirements of Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, the limits on drawing inferences after Matsushita and Scott v. Harris, and the Supreme Court's reminder in Tolan v. Cotton that courts may not weigh evidence or make credibility findings. It works through the mechanics that decide motions in practice: Rule 56(c) record citation requirements, local rule statements of material facts and the traps in them, what evidence may be considered and how the 2010 amendments changed objections, the sham affidavit doctrine, and Rule 56(d) requests for more discovery. It then turns to strategy for both sides, including partial motions, cross-motions, the role of experts, and the appellate consequences of a denial after Ortiz v. Jordan and Dupree v. Younger. It closes with drafting checklists, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 12, 202426 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Preparing a Privilege Log: A Practical Checklist

A privilege log is how a party justifies withholding documents in discovery, and it is one of the easiest protections to forfeit. This checklist walks through confirming the privilege actually applies, planning the log at the Rule 26(f) conference under the December 1, 2025 amendments, choosing between document-by-document and categorical logging, drafting descriptions that say enough and no more, handling inadvertent production and clawback, and signing and serving the log to avoid waiver. It pairs each step with the governing authority—Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(5), the Upjohn and Hickman foundations, FRE 502(b) and 502(d), and the Burlington Northern factors—and flags the traps that turn a log meant to protect the privilege into the instrument that waives it. It is general information, not legal advice; rules and local practice vary.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 7, 20249 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Civil Procedure Toolkit: Pleadings, Jurisdiction, Preclusion, and Deadlines

Most civil cases are decided by rules rather than by facts, and the rules that decide them cluster at the beginning and the end. This toolkit runs the procedural spine of a federal civil case in the order it is encountered: the jurisdictional and venue questions that determine where the case lives, the limitations analysis that must be done before anything is filed, the pleading standards that decide whether a complaint survives, the answer and counterclaim decisions that waive defenses if made carelessly, the schedule and its amendment deadlines, and the preclusive effect the resulting judgment will have on everything related. Each stage identifies what must be preserved and when it is waived. It finishes with preclusion and appellate preservation, the two doctrines that decide what a judgment is worth after the case is over.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 3, 202412 min read

LitigationSanctions

Litigation Sanctions and Professional Responsibility Toolkit

Sanctions in civil litigation come from four distinct sources that reach different conduct, carry different standards, and are lost in different ways — and conflating them is why most sanctions motions fail before anyone reaches the merits. This toolkit separates them, sets out the procedure each requires, and then addresses the professional responsibility obligations that operate alongside and independently: candor to the tribunal, the duty to disclose adverse controlling authority, conflicts, confidentiality, and supervision. It closes with the practices that prevent exposure entirely, including the citation verification discipline that recent enforcement has made unavoidable, and the steps to take when a motion arrives. It closes with citation verification and the generative AI problem, now the fastest-growing category of sanctions in federal court.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 31, 202412 min read

LitigationMotions

Summary Judgment Motion Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Summary judgment is decided on a record and on compliance with a local rule, and most motions are lost on the second of those. This checklist covers the whole sequence: deciding whether to move at all, building the record during discovery, drafting the statement of undisputed facts that carries the motion, handling evidence and objections under the post-2010 framework, and preserving the ruling for appeal. It gives separate phases to the moving and opposing sides, because the failure modes differ, and it flags the two Supreme Court decisions that determine what survives a denial. Used during discovery rather than after it, the checklist doubles as a plan for the evidence the motion will need.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 21, 20248 min read

LitigationEvidence

Expert Witnesses After the 2023 Amendment to Rule 702: Daubert, Disclosure, and Cross-Examination

On December 1, 2023, Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended to correct what the Advisory Committee described as widespread misapplication by courts. Many decisions had held that questions about an expert's application of a methodology go to weight rather than admissibility, effectively surrendering the gatekeeping role the Supreme Court assigned in Daubert. The amended rule makes two things explicit: the proponent must demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that each admissibility requirement is met, and the expert's opinion must reflect a reliable application of the methodology to the facts of the case. This article explains what changed and what did not, works through the Daubert trilogy and the reliability factors courts actually use, and covers the disclosure machinery of Rule 26(a)(2) including the difference between retained and non-retained experts and the work product protections added in 2010. It addresses the practicalities that decide expert fights: report drafting, deposition strategy, motions to exclude and their timing relative to summary judgment, the special problems of damages experts and apportionment, and cross-examination technique. It closes with checklists, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 20, 202425 min read

LitigationRemedies and Defenses

Understanding Equitable Defenses—A Comprehensive Guide to Laches, Acquiescence, Waiver, and Equitable Estoppel

Equitable defenses can defeat or limit an otherwise valid legal claim not by disputing the merits but by pointing to the claimant's own delay, conduct, or representations. This article defines and distinguishes the four core equitable defenses—laches (unreasonable delay plus prejudice), acquiescence (active conduct signaling a claim will not be pursued), waiver (intentional relinquishment of a known right), and equitable estoppel (misleading conduct plus detrimental reliance)—and explains how each differs from a statute of limitations. It gives particular attention to the sharp curtailment of laches as a damages bar after Petrella v. MGM (2014) and SCA Hygiene v. First Quality (2017), and to where laches still does real work—above all in trademark, where the Lanham Act has no limitations period and doctrines like progressive encroachment and inevitable confusion shape the outcome. The article also treats the related unclean-hands and assignor-estoppel doctrines and the practical mechanics of pleading equitable defenses under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c). Worked hypotheticals spanning patent, trademark, copyright, contract, insurance, corporate, and real-property practice illustrate each doctrine for judges, practitioners, and non-lawyers alike.

Casey Scott McKayJanuary 19, 202455 min read

LitigationTrial and Post-Trial

Trial and Post-Trial Toolkit: From Pretrial Order to Judgment

A trial is won or lost in the three weeks before it starts and preserved or forfeited in the four weeks after it ends. This toolkit covers both windows and the days in between. It begins with the final pretrial conference and the pretrial order that supersedes the pleadings, then works through in limine practice, jury selection, the mechanics of putting on and attacking proof, and the running obligation to preserve error that determines whether anything that happens at trial can be reviewed. The post-trial stages cover the motions that must be filed within twenty-eight days, the stay and bond mechanics that keep a judgment from being executed while it is challenged, cost and fee applications with their own short deadlines, and the notice of appeal whose timing is jurisdictional and unforgiving.

Casey Scott McKayDecember 14, 202315 min read

LitigationDiscovery

Mastering Document Discovery: A Comprehensive Guide to Objecting and Responding to Requests for Production

Requests for production under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 34 are the workhorse of modern civil discovery, and the quality of a party's objections and responses often determines whether a case is won, settled, or sanctioned. This guide explains the scope of discovery under Rule 26(b)(1) and the transformative 2015 proportionality amendments, the strict response requirements of Rule 34(b)(2) including the duty to state whether documents are being withheld, and the courts' growing hostility to boilerplate objections. It covers electronically stored information in depth -- form of production, native versus TIFF, metadata, collaboration tools, ephemeral messaging, and technology-assisted review -- as well as privilege logs, waiver and protection under Federal Rule of Evidence 502, and clawback orders. The article also addresses the litigation hold, the meet-and-confer duty, Rule 37 sanctions, spoliation under Rule 37(e), and third-party subpoenas under Rule 45, with worked examples and model objection-and-response language. It is written so that judges, practitioners, and non-lawyers alike can follow the mechanics and the strategy of document discovery.

Casey Scott McKayNovember 15, 202352 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Personal Jurisdiction Over Online and Foreign Defendants: From Zippo to Ford Motor

A company in Shenzhen sells 40 units into Illinois through a marketplace. A blogger in Ireland writes something defamatory about a California executive. A German manufacturer sells components to an American assembler who ships finished products everywhere. In each case the threshold question is the same and is genuinely hard: may a United States court exercise power over this defendant. This article explains the modern doctrine of personal jurisdiction as it applies to online and foreign defendants, beginning with the constitutional framework of International Shoe and the sharp separation of general and specific jurisdiction that the Supreme Court has enforced since Goodyear and Daimler. It covers the effects test of Calder as narrowed by Walden, the Zippo sliding scale for websites and why most circuits have moved past it, the express aiming and something more standards that replaced it, the meaning of Ford Motor's holding that a claim may arise out of or relate to forum contacts without strict causation, and Mallory's revival of consent by corporate registration. It then addresses the machinery: state long-arm statutes, the federal long-arm of Rule 4(k)(2), jurisdictional discovery, waiver under Rule 12, and the practicalities of suing defendants abroad. It closes with strategy for plaintiffs and defendants, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayNovember 2, 202327 min read