Strategist

Federal Rule of Evidence 1002 requires a party seeking to prove the content of a piece of evidence to produce the original. Screenshots are a common way to save and share a visual copy of messages we receive. But are these images enough to satisfy the best evidence rule?

A recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision may spell trouble for thousands of opioid lawsuits across the country. The trial in Oklahoma was the first large recovery alleging a violation of public nuisance laws, but thousands of subsequent lawsuits have made similar claims in state courts across the country.

According to two new studies, lawyers have been worried about employer support, reduced access to clients, and trying to "do it all."

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights recently announced investigations into bans on mask mandates in six states, specifically examining how these bans impact students with disabilities. On August 30, the OCR sent letters to chief state school officers in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah, alerting them of the investigations. Notably missing from the list are Texas and Arkansas, which have enacted similar laws or executive orders but are not currently enforcing them due to court orders. Florida was also missing from the first round of letters. However, attempts to enforce the ban in the Sunshine State have landed them on the Department of Education's "to do" list.

Sidney Powell and other lawyers connected to a Michigan lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election have been sanctioned by a federal judge, who called the suit a "historic and profound abuse of the judicial process." Judge Linda Parker of Michigan's Eastern District held that, regardless of whether there was fraud in the 2020 election in the state of Michigan, the attorneys who filed the lawsuit "abused the well-established rules" of litigation and proffered claims that were not backed by law.

Two giant tobacco companies, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, had a $37 million verdict against them overturned by the Florida Court of Appeals because of inflammatory comments made by the lawyer for plaintiff Richard Mahfuz to the jury at closing arguments. Mahfuz sued the tobacco companies for wrongful death after his wife passed away from lung cancer. The jury awarded actual and punitive damages in almost exactly the amount the plaintiff requested.