May 10-11, 2010: Civil Litigation Conference at Duke Law School

A live Webcast is available for the 2010 Civil Litigation Conference, sponsored by the Judicial Conference of the United States, and being held 10-11 May 2010 at Duke University Law School in Durham, North Carolina, USA.

The conference will focus on empirical research on U.S. federal civil litigation, including research on lawyers’ satisfaction with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, judicial decisions (Iqbal and Twombly and cases applying them) respecting pleading rules, ediscovery, the “vanishing trial”, incentives for settlement, and experimentation and proposals respecting civil litigation reform in U.S. states, including research conducted by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver (IAALS).

Click here for the conference program.

Click here for information about the conference from Duke Law.

Click here for an article about the conference from Tony Mauro at National Law Journal.

eDiscovery Developments in US Federal Courts

Two recent developments respecting electronic discovery in U.S. federal courts may be of interest.

First, the Federal Judicial Center has published National, Case-Based Civil Rules Survey: Preliminary Report to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (October 2009). Here is the abstract:

“This report presents preliminary findings from a survey of attorneys in recenty closed civil cases which the Federal Judicial Center conducted in May and June 2009. Nearly half of the attorneys invited to participate responded. The report covers discovery activities and case management in the closed cases; electronic discovery activities in the closed cases; atorney evaluations of discovery in the closed cases; the costs of litigation and discovery; and attitudes toward specific reform proposals and, more generally, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”

Second, this month the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit launched an Electronic Discovery Pilot Program, and published a Statement of Purpose and Preparation of Principles (Oct. 1, 2009) respecting that program.

Both the FJC report and the 7th Circuit program will be discussed at two upcoming conferences:

• The Annual Meeting & Judicial Conference of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, to be held May 2-4, 2010, in Chicago (details about the conference will be announced on the bar association’s Website);
• Conference of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, to be held May 10-11, 2010, at Duke University (for details, see the Nixon Peabody announcement (please scroll down)).

HT @PosseList & Nixon Peabody LLP.