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.

LitigationInternational Arbitration

Bringing or Defending a Treaty Claim: A Practical Guide

An investor-state arbitration runs four to six years and costs several million dollars, and the decisions that determine its outcome are made in the first six months. This guide runs the process from both sides. For the claimant it covers the pre-filing assessment, the notice of dispute and the cooling-off period where a meaningful share of cases settle, the treaty analysis, arbitrator selection, and the evidentiary case that must be built from documents the state controls. For the respondent state it covers the jurisdictional objections and bifurcation strategy that end most successful defences, the regulatory framing of the challenged measure, and the quantum attack where the money actually is. It closes with annulment, enforcement, and the funding and insurance options that change the economics.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 202628 min read

LitigationGovernment Enforcement

Bringing or Defending a Qui Tam Case: A Practical Guide

This guide runs a False Claims Act matter from both sides, in the order events actually occur — which for a defendant means beginning before it knows a case exists. It covers recognizing the signals of a sealed qui tam, responding to a civil investigative demand, issuing a hold that reaches the systems where the evidence lives, and running an internal investigation that finds the company's own facts before the government asks about them. It then addresses the two records that decide most cases: the contemporaneous interpretation file that answers scienter after Schutte, and the agency payment history that answers materiality after Escobar. Later steps cover the presentation to the government during the seal, the motion to dismiss, discovery, settlement and its collateral terms, and parallel criminal exposure. Separate steps set out the relator's path and the compliance work that should precede all of it.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 202629 min read

LitigationArbitration

Award Enforcement Toolkit: Petitions, Vacatur Motions, and Judgment Collection

Working templates for the post-award phase of an arbitration. It includes a petition to confirm, a motion to vacate structured around the statutory grounds, an institutional correction and completion request, a post-award deadline tracker, a jurisdiction decision tree built for the world after Badgerow, a debtor examination outline, and a model arbitration clause revised to address every failure this toolkit exists to fix. Each template carries drafting notes explaining what the language does and where it commonly fails. Adapt everything to the matter and the governing rules.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 202615 min read

LitigationArbitration

Arbitration Award Challenge Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A working checklist for the days and weeks after an arbitration award issues. It covers the three reads of the award, the six deadlines to calendar on day one, a ground-by-ground vacatur assessment under Section 10, the jurisdictional analysis that Badgerow made mandatory, the confirmation filing, and the collection sequence that turns a judgment into money. Separate sections address Convention awards, partial awards, insolvent debtors, and the drafting fixes each matter produces. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 202610 min read

LitigationArbitration

Arbitrability and Motion to Compel Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A working checklist for moving to compel arbitration, opposing such a motion, and auditing an arbitration clause before either happens. It sequences the questions in the order courts answer them: which agreement governs, whether the FAA applies, whether an agreement was formed, whether arbitrability is delegated, and only then scope. Separate sections cover the formation-evidence package for online terms, the waiver timeline, the stay request, appellate posture, and an annual clause review. Each item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 20269 min read

LitigationInternational Litigation

Anti-Suit Injunctions and Parallel Proceedings: Racing to Judgment Across Borders

When the same dispute is litigated in two countries at once, the party that reaches judgment first frequently wins everywhere, and an anti-suit injunction is the weapon for stopping the other race. This article explains how US courts decide whether to issue one: the threshold requirements that both circuits share, and the deep split between the liberal approach, which weighs duplication and inefficiency, and the conservative approach, which requires a threat to the enjoining court's jurisdiction or to an important public policy. It covers the escalation into anti-anti-suit injunctions, the alternatives of a stay and forum non conveniens, and the practical decision of whether to race or to seek an injunction. Worked examples follow a contract dispute filed in two forums and a standard-essential patent case where the injunction battle decided the outcome.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 5, 202629 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Navigating the Paper Trail: A Comprehensive Guide to Federal Civil Litigation Filings

This guide walks through every major filing in a federal civil case in chronological order, from the pre-filing investigation and the complaint through the notice of appeal, using a single running hypothetical so the reader can watch one document lead to the next. It explains the legal standard behind each filing in plain language for laypeople while staying precise enough for judges and practitioners. The article covers pre-suit cease-and-desist and demand letters and the litigation-hold duty, Rule 8 notice pleading and the Twombly/Iqbal plausibility standard, the Rule 10 caption and the Rule 7 line between pleadings and motions, Rule 11's signature-as-certification and its safe-harbor sanctions machinery, Rule 4 service, Rule 12 motions including Rule 12(c) judgment on the pleadings, answers and counterclaims, Rule 65 TROs and preliminary injunctions, the Rule 26(f) conference and Rule 16 scheduling order, ADR and settlement filings, discovery, Rule 56 summary judgment, Daubert and pretrial filings, trial and post-trial motions under Rules 50 and 59, costs, fees and interest, and the mechanics of CM/ECF e-filing, PACER, local rules, deadline computation under Rule 6, and certificates of service. Each section identifies the controlling rule and the strategic purpose the document serves. The article is designed as both a roadmap for first-time litigants and a refresher for experienced counsel, and it closes with an FAQ and links to related firm resources on discovery, depositions, and case evaluation.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 30, 202657 min read

LitigationMass Torts

Mass Tort and MDL Toolkit: From JPML Petition to Settlement Administration

This toolkit supplies the working documents of mass tort practice. It contains a JPML motion outline for both sides, a leadership application framework, a common benefit time protocol, an index of the case management orders every MDL produces and what each controls, an intake vetting screen and records request letter, fact sheet and deficiency response guidance, a general causation brief outline, a bellwether selection protocol, settlement matrix design considerations, and the aggregate settlement disclosure letter and individual informed consent form that Rule 1.8(g) requires. It closes with a lien resolution workflow and a client closing statement format.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 27, 202616 min read

LitigationGeneral Litigation

Evaluating and Assessing a Civil Lawsuit

A rigorous early case assessment is the single most valuable—and most underinvested—hour a litigator spends on a dispute. This article walks corporate counsel and outside litigators through the full arc of assessing a civil lawsuit, following a hypothetical defendant from the moment a dispute surfaces to judgment and appeal. It works methodically through the questions that actually decide whether a case is worth bringing or fighting: can the plaintiff prove every element of the claim under the governing burden of proof; is there personal jurisdiction and proper venue; has the statute of limitations run; what are liability and damages worth separately; and—the question lawyers forget until it is too late—can a judgment ever be collected. It then turns to the quantitative tools that turn judgment into a defensible number (decision trees and expected value), the fee arrangements and ethical rules (Model Rules 1.5 and 1.7) that govern who pays and on what terms, and the modern frontier of e-discovery, predictive analytics, and third-party litigation funding. The throughline: assessment is not about predicting outcomes but about shaping them.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 12, 202648 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Rule 37(c)(1) Preclusion of Undisclosed Evidence: A Practical Guide

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(c)(1) is the rule that ended "trial by ambush." When a party fails to disclose information or a witness as required by Rule 26(a) or to supplement under Rule 26(e), it generally may not use that information or witness on a motion, at a hearing, or at trial—unless the failure was substantially justified or harmless. This guide explains, in plain language for litigators, business owners, and judges alike, how the rule works: the affirmative disclosure duties it enforces, its "self-executing" character, the two escape hatches and who bears the burden of proving them, and the multi-factor tests the federal circuits use—the Second Circuit's Patterson/Softel factors, the Fourth Circuit's Southern States framework, and the Tenth Circuit's Woodworker's Supply factors—to decide whether the harsh remedy of preclusion is warranted. It covers the special and high-stakes context of expert disclosures, the recurring question of whether a party may rely at trial on something it withheld in discovery, the procedural mechanics of invoking the rule, the menu of lesser sanctions, and a worked hypothetical, closing with practical takeaways for both sides and an FAQ.

Casey Scott McKayJune 12, 202641 min read

LitigationCivil Rights

Section 1983 Complaint and Qualified Immunity Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a Section 1983 case from intake through the fee petition. It front-loads the two deadlines that destroy cases before anyone reaches the merits, the state notice of claim period and the body camera retention schedule, then works defendant selection, the pleading standards that a qualified immunity motion will test, the clearly established precedent search that should happen before filing, the Monell discovery plan that determines value, and the damages and fee proof that determines what the case is actually worth. Separate sections cover the defense sequence and the Heck bar analysis.

Casey Scott McKayMay 8, 20268 min read

LitigationCivil Rights

Civil Rights Litigation Toolkit: Claims, Immunities, Damages, and Fees

This toolkit supplies the operative documents of civil rights practice. It contains the preservation letter that must go out within days, a notice of claim template, public records request language, a complaint framework with Monell allegations that survive dismissal, a qualified immunity opposition outline and a method for the clearly established precedent search, the Monell document demand set and Rule 30b6 topic list, a damages worksheet, and a Section 1988 fee petition framework with the Rule 68 analysis that should precede any rejection. It also includes a Heck decision tree and the PLRA screen for incarcerated plaintiffs.

Casey Scott McKayApril 30, 202615 min read