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April 16, 2008
Cross-examination: criminal v. civil.
They are two different worlds. Chicago's Stewart Weltman explains at his Lean and Mean Litigation blog.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)
Why ever mediate?
For some answers, see Justin Patten's Human Law Mediation. It took our firm--and me--a long time to figure it out: paying a hard-working mediator to deliver a reality check to all sides is the best settlement device out there. It stifles the testosterone for a few hours, and forces reflection. Helps your client rep/GC and you with your inevitable "Kool-Aid" problems*, too. If something can settle at all, a good mediator will get that done. It is well worth the money spent. If it still tries, you try a more efficient case.
*Believing and thinking for whatever reasons that your court case is better than it actually is.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:09 PM | Comments (2)
U.S. Supreme Court decides corporate tax dispute in MeadWestvaco.
Yesterday, on tax day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in MeadWestvaco Corp. v. Illinois Department of Revenue, holding that an Illinois appellate court had gone well beyond constitutional limits in allowing the State of Illinois to tax part of a capital gain resulting from Mead's $1.5 billion sale in 1994 of Lexis/Nexis. The full opinion is here. On January 16, the day of oral arguments, Julie McGuire and Tom Welshonce previewed MeadWestvaco in "Boundary Flare-Up: U.S. Supreme Court Revisits Constitutional Limitation on States’ Power to Tax". We'll soon post more on yesterday's decision.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)