Week 5 Thursday (Dec. 3) Test - Litigation (ADR, Disc, E-Disc, Lgl Research) Test Flashcards
(118 cards)
1
Q
** Pleadings
A
papers filed with the court to initiate or respond to a lawsuit
2
Q
What is a summons?
A
a court order directing the defendant to appear in court and answer the complaint or petition.
3
Q
What is Consolidation?
A
If several plaintiffs have filed separate lawsuits stemming from the same fact situation against the same defendant, the court can initiate a consolidation of the cases into one case if it would not cause undue prejudice to the parties?
4
Q
What does the complaint or petition contain
A
- names of the parties to the lawsuit
- facts of the case
- law that was violated; and
- prayer for relief
5
Q
The two major pleadings are
A
- the complaint or petition
2. the answer
6
Q
What type of case is a good example of Consolidation?
A
Airplane crash cases
7
Q
Who is the complaint or petition served on?
A
the defendant
8
Q
** The initial pleading In federal court is called a
A
a complaint
9
Q
** What is Statute of Limitations?
A
the law that establishes the period during which a plaintiff must bring a lawsuit against a defendant
10
Q
What is a prayer for relief?
A
prayer (request) for relief is asking for what you want to the court to grant you
11
Q
Once the complaint or petition has been filed, the court issues a
A
summons
12
Q
What is “Loser Pay”?
A
If a plaintiff rejects a settlement offer, and later wins an award that is less than 80% of the rejected offer, the defendants can recover litigation costs out of the jury award.
13
Q
Who serves the complaint or petition?
A
a sheriff, government official, or private process server
14
Q
Who and why is a summons issued?
A
once a complaint or petition has been filed, the court issues a summons.
15
Q
Plaintiff files a what in Texas state court?
A
files a petition as the initial filing
16
Q
** If other persons have a pecuniary interest in a lawsuit, and they step in and become parties to the lawsuit, it is called an ________________.
A
intervention
17
Q
Chronology is what?
A
a timeline
18
Q
If several plaintiffs have filed separate lawsuits stemming from the same fact situation against the same defendant, the court can initiate a _____________________ of the cases into one court case if it would not cause undue prejudice to the parties.
A
Consolidation
19
Q
** The ______ is the law that establishes the period during which a plaintiff must bring a lawsuit against a defendant
A
Statute of Limitations
20
Q
Plaintiff files a what in Federal court?
A
files a complaint as the initial filing
21
Q
What is non financial intervention?
A
pecuniary intervention
22
Q
A person who represents him/herself.
A
Pro Se
- if you go to court on your own you are considered Pro Se
23
Q
Motion to Dismiss
A
even if the facts in the plaintiff’s petition are true, there is no reason to continue the lawsuit
24
Q
** Explain Ex Parte
A
one party has communication with the judge without the participation of the opposing party.
25
Draft a Chronology
- list the facts and the dates
- make sure you include significant details
- include the sources for each fact
- include a "key fact" column to check off so that you begin to separate key facts from other facts
26
** What types of motions are dispositive?
Motion to Dismiss
and
Motion for Summary Judgment
27
Pretrial Hearing
- used to facilitate settlement
- usually held in chambers
- hearing is used to identify major issues and other relevant facts
- cases may be referred to ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution)
28
** What does dispositive motion mean?
the judge can dispose of all or part of the case.
29
Plaintiff's Case
- has burp
- plf's attorney calls witnesses
- documentary evidence can be introduced through witnesses
30
What is rejoinder?
the defendant's attorney calls additional witnesses and introduce other evidence to counter the rebuttal.
31
Trial is divided into 8 phases:
```
1 - jury selection
2 - opening statements
3 - plaintiff's case in chief
4 - defendant's case in chief
5 - rebuttal and rejoinder
6 - closing arguments
7 - jury instruction and deliberation
8 - entry of judgment
```
32
** What does voir dire mean?
- to speak the truth
33
** The last words that an attorney says to the seated jury are called ______.
closing arguments
34
Jury Selection
- complete questionnaire
- jurors can be stricken for cause due to biase
- preemptory challenges can be used to exclude w/out reason
- they impaneled and sworn
35
Defendant's Case
- once plf rests, defense will usually make a Motion for Directed Verdict
- if denied, defendant will present its case-in-chief
36
** The words that an attorney says to the seated jury at the start of the trial are called ____.
opening statements
37
Rebuttal and Rejoinder
- plf call witness to rebut def case
| - def call add'l witnesses and introduce other evidence to counter the rebuttal
38
**Jury Charge
also called jury instructions
39
Who are the trier of facts?
the jurors are the trier of facts
40
** Remittitur
judge reduces the amount of damages awarded by a jury
41
** JNOV
judgment non obstante verdicto
42
Appeal
- either side in civil case can appeal to the appropriate appellate court
43
Jury Deliberation
- jury is not required to go to jury room in Texas
- In Texas - the clerk of the court reads the verdict
- In federal court - the jury reads the verdict
44
Entry of Judgment
- judge enters judgment to the successful party based on the verdict
- judge may reduce the amount of dags awarded if it finds the jury was biased, emotional, or inflamed
45
** The party who appeals may be required to post an appeal bond, called a
supersedeas bond
46
** The appealing party is called the ____, and the other party is called the _____.
Appellant - Appellee
| Petitioner - Respondent
47
** What 3 actions may an appellate court take after hearing a case?
Affirm - prior decision stands
Reverse - lower court made an error and reverses the decision
Remand - lower court made error that can be corrected
48
What does Discovery do?
- prevents surprises,
- allows for thorough prep for trial
- saves court time
- promotes settlement
49
** What are the 6 major forms of Discovery?
1. Deposition
2. Request for Disclosures
3. Interrogatories
4. Request for Production
5. Request for Admissions
6. Physical and Mental Exams
50
Discovery
- a detailed pretrial procedure that both parties engage in to learn facts of the case
- as well as the witnesses that will be called from the other side
51
Oral testimony given under oath by a party or witness prior to trial
depositions
52
** Written questions submitted to a party during discovery are called
interrogatories
53
What are depositions used for?
to preserve evidence and to impeach witnesses at trial
54
What is the person testifying called?
deponent
55
Request for Disclosure is what?
12 standard questions and they are non objectionable
56
** If an RFA is not answered on time, it is _____ and to undo that, you'd file a ________.
deemed admitted
| Motion to Strike Deemed Admissions
57
What is the limit of the interrogatories?
maximum of 25 answers
58
What rules are you always to check when doing discovery - whether you are propounding it or answering it?
check the Rules
and the
Commentaries
59
** ESI
Electronically Stored Information
60
Can you say just "Gimme all your ESI"?
no, it must be relevant
61
What is a Rule 11 Agreement?
- agreements between opposing counsels
| - often deal with discovery extensions
62
What is Metadata?
data about data
63
What is Bates?
stamping, labeling, numbering
64
What is E-Discovery?
E-Discovery is Discovery
| it has to do with requesting and providing Electronically Stored Information
65
** What is a preservation letter?
is used for internal letter to your client
66
What does ESI include?
```
emails,
instant messaging chats,
texts,
tweets,
accounting databases,
CAD & CAM files,
documents-pdf, scanned
websites
browsing history
all kinds of databases
photo and video files
hard drives & network attached drives,
small portable drives
sim cards,
call history
cell and landline phones
contacts
vm
```
67
** What are the 4 things in Litigation Hold Letter? **
1. identify the parties
2. description of the legal claims
3. scope of the legal hold (what do you want them to hold)
4. likely sources of relevant ESI
68
What should the Litigation Hold letter state?
to halt disposing of, or writing over, potential evidence
69
** What is a Litigation Hold?
is sent to opposing party telling them to keep all electronic documents
70
What does "Preserve" mean?
Don't
| - delete relevant information
71
** Spoliation
intentional or negligent withholding hiding, altering, or destoying relevant evidence
72
** A person who does that (previous answer) is called a ______.
spoliator
73
If Litigation Hold Letter says ____, then it will not be enforced by a court and might even be seen as _____.
save everything from
everybody on
ever computer or storage device
discovery abuse
74
What are accessible documents? And who pays?
available in a usable format and reasonably indexed
the responding party pays
75
** What is the most often cited e-discovery case?
Zubulake v. UBS Warburg - employment discrimination case
76
What are inaccessible documents? And who pays?
- difficult to reach storage
- converted to microfiche & not easily readable
- docs w/no index system making searches impracticable
court may use a cost shifting analysis
77
Secondary Authorities
- Encyclopedias
- ALR American Law Reprots
- Periodicals & law reviews
- Dictionaries
- Thesaurius
- Model codes
- Unadopted uniform laws
- Treatises
- Restatement of the Law
78
What is Dicta?
when a court, in a written opinion, answers a question it was not asked.
79
What West regional reporter covers Texas?
We are in the southwest report
West's South Western
S.W. or S.W.2d
80
Primary Authorities
All law
- court decisions
- statutes
- agency rules & regulations
- Charters
- Ordinances
- Adopted pattern jury instructions
- Court rules
81
** What is a Slip Opinion?
the first printed version of a judge's decision
82
What is the most popular Citator?
Shepard's citator system
83
Finding Tools
- Digests
- Citators
- Updaters
- Annotated Statutes
84
Scholarly works that examine one legal topic in great detail and with very broad coverage. These are generally multi-volume sets.
Treatises
85
What is a Citator?
services that note when a court has mentioned or relied on a case
86
Scholarly but designed for students of law, are generally one-volume works providing an overview of a single legal topic.
Hornbooks
87
** USCA
United States Code Annotated
| - unofficial versions of the U.S.C. w/annotations
88
What are the two main computerized legal research systems?
Lexis
| and Westlaw
89
** USCCAN
United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
| - easiest source of commercially compiled federal legislative histories
90
What is West Laws citator?
KeyCite
91
ADR
Alternative Dispute Resolution
92
USC
United States Code
| - official government issued compilation of the federal statutes
93
What is ADR used for?
it's an alternative to litigation
| and it is cheaper and fast
94
** CFR
Code of Federal Regulations
| - regulations have the force of law
95
Who uses a 3rd party?
both mediation and arbitration
96
USCS
United States Code Service
| - unofficial versions of the U.S.C. w/annotations
97
Two main forms of ADR
1. Mediation
| 2. Arbitration
98
Arbitration
- is more like a trial
- both sides present evidence
- arbitrator sits like a judge
- arbitrator makes the decision
- there is no APPEAL
99
GPO
Government Printing Office
100
What do family court judges usually decide?
almost always will send you to arbitration
101
How long does it take?
it just depends - normally it takes around 3 hours
102
May a paralegal be a mediator?
Yes, 40 hours course, but no one is going to hire you
| Because they hire lawyers and they know the law.
103
Mediator
- goes back and forth between two rooms
- mediator resolves cases
- if you don't like the outcome you can just not sign
- you can then go to court
104
Who hires the arbitrator?
usually the big corporations and they know the big corporation and not you
105
* What is an intervention?
if other persons have a pecuniary interest in a lawsuit, they may step in and become parties to the lawsuit.
106
** A person giving a deposition is called a
deponent
107
** The initial pleading in state court is called a
petition
108
**When lawyers speak to and with the jury panel prior to the selection of the jury, this is called ____.
voir dire
109
** What two things may take place in trial immediately after both sides rest?
rebuttal
and
rejoinder
110
** Who reads the verdict in Texas state courts?
clerk
111
** A litigation hold is sent when litigation is (two words)
reasonable anticipated
112
** How long does a litigation hold last if litigation has not commenced? (ck on tape to be sure correct answer)
until the statute of limitation has expired
113
** How long does a litigation hold last if litigation has already commenced? (ck on tape to be sure correct answer)
until the time for all appeals have been exhausted.
114
** What authority is used for "Charters"?
primary authority
115
** Services that note when a court has mentioned or relied on a case are called ____.
citators
116
** ___ are created by administrative agencies who are given that authority by enabling _____.
Regulations
| statutes
117
** What authority is used for "regulations"?
primary authority
118
** What authority is used for "appellate court cases"?
primary authority
