News & Publications

Congress long ago generously provided for American judicial assistance in obtaining discovery in the United States "for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal" without requiring reciprocity from the country in which such tribunal is seated. This altruistic legislation, intended as an example (hopefully to be emulated by other countries), is set out in the increasingly popular yet controversial statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1782. The fly in the ointment regarding this generous [...]

Recently, and for the first time in more than 20 years, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled on the transportation worker exemption contained in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). In Waithaka v. Amazon.com, Inc., 966 F.3d 10 (1st Cir. 2020), the court of appeals upheld a district court's decision not to compel Amazon "AmFlex" delivery drivers (who are independent contractors) to arbitrate their wage claims. The decision is [...]

Even before COVID-19, coffee companies were navigating the safety challenges of serving hot beverages to customers. On August 18, 2020 – almost 26-years after the infamous Liebeck hot coffee lawsuit – the California Court of Appeals for the Second District affirmed in an unpublished opinion the dismissal of a woman's lawsuit suing Starbucks Corporation after she was allegedly burned by hot tea.1 Products liability may be premised upon a theory of design defect, manufacturing defect, [...]