Litigation Insights
Analysis and practical guides on litigation.
286 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.
CAFA Jurisdiction and Class Action Removal: Amount in Controversy, Exceptions, and Mass Actions
The Class Action Fairness Act rewrote the jurisdictional rules for class litigation, and almost every fight about it is a fight about one of four things: the amount in controversy, one of the exceptions, whether the case is a mass action, and whether the removal was timely. This article works through the elements of CAFA jurisdiction and the removal machinery in section 1453, which strips away the forum defendant rule, the unanimity requirement, and the one-year limit. It then covers the amount in controversy after Dart Cherokee and Standard Fire, the mandatory and discretionary exceptions and who bears the burden on each, the carve-outs for securities and corporate governance claims, the mass action provisions and their peculiar limits, and the discretionary appellate review that makes a remand order reviewable when it otherwise would not be. A running example follows one defendant through a removal and a remand fight.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Default Judgment Toolkit: Entry Requests, Damages Declarations, and Motions to Vacate
This toolkit collects fourteen working templates for federal default practice, for plaintiffs seeking a default judgment and defendants trying to undo one. Plaintiff templates cover a pre-default notice letter, the request for entry of default and its declaration, the non-military status declaration, the clerk's-judgment affidavit of sum certain, a Rule 55(b)(2) motion outline, a business-witness damages declaration, a fee and cost declaration, and a proposed judgment. Defendant templates cover motions to set aside an entry of default under Rule 55(c) and to vacate a default judgment under Rule 60(b)(1), (4), and (6), with circumstances and meritorious-defense declarations. Shared templates include a stipulation to set aside the default with a proposed order, an opposition outline, and a deadline tracker. Each template states its purpose, owner, and timing, uses bracketed placeholders, and closes with drafting commentary tied to the governing rules and cases, all illustrated by one running fictional case.
Motion in Limine Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist turns motion in limine practice into a sequence of concrete tasks, from the first reading of the judge's trial procedures to the post-trial motions that depend on a clean preservation record. It is organized in phases: procedures and calendar, inventory and triage, conferral and stipulations, drafting, expert motions, opposing, the pretrial conference and order, implementation before trial, preservation at trial, and post-trial follow-through. Each item names the governing rule or case and adds a short practical note where useful. Red-flag boxes mark the points where preservation is most often lost, and a deadlines table collects the dates that drive the work. A short worked example from an employment case and a list of common failure points close the checklist.
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.
Clawback Toolkit: 502(d) Orders, Clawback Notices, and Privilege Review Protocols
This toolkit gives litigators working papers they can copy into a real case. It includes a Rule 502(d) order with clause options, a motion for entry over objection, a clawback notice, a sequestration response, and a quarantine stipulation. It also includes a reviewer protocol, a privilege QC worksheet, a generative AI addendum, deposition scripts, a Rule 502(b) declaration outline, and an opposition outline. Each paper states its purpose, owner, and timing, and each is followed by drafting notes tied to reported authority. All bracketed text must be conformed to your case and court.
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.