Legal Jobs Tips
When it comes to Legal Jobs, we've been there, done that, now serving 99 tips in 11 categories ranging from Antitrust to Securities Enforcement.
Securities Litigation
Securities litigation is often complex and involves many documents. During the discovery phase of securities litigation, these documents are exchanged between the plaintiff and the defendant via production requests, interrogatories, requests for admissions, and depositions.
A temporary document review attorney that is experienced in the securities area of law is a big asset to firms that take large securities cases. The document review attorney reviews documents for content—confidentiality issues and privileged information.
If a confidential document is inadvertently produced to opposing counsel, this opens the door for requests for other documents that are related to the produced document. This action could easily negatively affect the outcome of a settlement or litigation.
The securities litigation attorneys are experienced in document review and are supervised by the firm that retained them. They provided a valuable service to firms working on securities litigation matters in that they save the firm hours of time, which in turn, allows the firm to work on other aspects of the case or allows the firm to work with or take additional clients.
Securities Act
For firms involved in securities act cases, there are many documents to review prior to sending them out in response to discovery requests. Certain documents are protected by confidentiality rules, especially documents that are considered attorney-client privileged. Attorney-client privileged documents are documents between the attorney and the attorney's client and are not discoverable.
If a document that is not discoverable is inadvertently provided to opposing counsel, it opens the door for requests for other confidential documents related to the document sent.
Document review is a time consuming process. Attorneys hire temporary attorneys that are provided by legal staffing agencies. The attorneys are experienced in securities act cases. They are trained in document review procedures, and can review many documents in an expeditious manner, thus saving the firm hours of time and allowing the firm to spend time on other aspects of the case or with other clients.
Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act
The Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act (ITSFEA) re-codified the Insider Trading Sanctions Act of 1984 to make it Section 21A of the Exchange Act. Under the ITSFEA, a monetary penalty of up to three times the amount of the gained profit that was gained or the loss that was avoided during the sale of a security while the seller was in possession of material that was considered to be non-public in nature.
In 1988, the ITSFEA was amended to make the penalties applicable to controlling persons and also to include people who violate the Act by disseminating the information.
Law firms that are involved in insider trading and securities fraud cases are inundated with a large amount of documents during the discovery phase. Discovery requests must be responded to, but before any document (electronic or otherwise) leaves a law firm, it must be checked for confidentiality and privileged information. Since this can be a time consuming task, many attorneys retain experienced, temporary document review attorneys. The temporary attorneys are provided by legal staffing agencies and are experienced in the needed field (such as the insider trading and securities fraud field) and in document review.
Litigation Support Company
A litigation support company provides litigation support in the form of document review services for securities enforcement cases. Prior to the discovery phase, the attorney must review all documents for confidentiality issues and for documents that fall under attorney-client privilege rules.
The document review attorney reviews the documents and, under the supervision of the lead attorney on the case, separates the confidential documents. If it is a large case, a document review manager and team might be assigned to the case. The document review team organizes and reviews the documents that are being sent in response to discovery requests.
The litigation support company might also be retained to review incoming discovery documents. These documents are in response to the attorney's request for production, interrogatories, depositions, and requests for admissions. The document review attorney reviewing incoming discovery looks for confidential documents inadvertently provided by opposing counsel.
Product Liability Information
A person that alleges product liability must have suffered an injury from the product. There are three times that injury could occur during the life of a product: before, during, or after the manufacturing process.
If an injury occurs before the manufacturing process, the injury is caused by a design defect—a flaw in the product's design, making the product dangerous. If an injury occurs during the manufacturing process, the injury is caused by a manufacturing defect—a problem with the manufacturing process causes the product to be defective. If an injury occurs after the manufacturing process, the injury is caused by a marketing defect—an injury occurs because of the lack of instructions or warnings.
Document review attorneys provided by legal staffing agencies help attorneys with large product liability cases. The document review attorneys save the lead attorneys the time and costs involved in extensive document review involved with discovery requests for product liability cases.
Product Liability Claims
Product liability claims are subject to product liability acts. Claims can only be filed if a person was injured by a product, or if the product caused a death, in which case, the decedent's family may file a product liability claim.
Product liability claims involve extensive documentation. Much of the documentation is in the form of electronic documents, such as faxes and emails. During a product liability claim litigation matter, discovery is required to be produced by the plaintiff and the defendant.
Document review attorneys that are provided by legal staffing agencies work with attorneys who take product liability claims. During the discovery process of litigation, discovery requests come in via requests for production, interrogatories, depositions, and requests for admissions. Documents that are provided to opposing counsel pursuant to these requests must be reviewed for content matter. A document review attorney reviews the documents (electronic or hard copies) for confidentiality issues and privileged information.
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| Patricia Walters-Fischer |
