The legal protection of trade secrets allows individuals and businesses to prevent disclosure of specific information, and to recover damages for the misuse of such information. To meet the legal definition of a “trade secret,” the information at issue must have value based on its secrecy, and the…
A party to a lawsuit might receive only one chance to assert a claim or raise a defense. Once a court has made a final judgment on a particular issue, the doctrine of collateral estoppel, or “issue preclusion,” states that the issue cannot be raised again. The effect of this doctrine is…
Filing a lawsuit requires careful planning because a plaintiff might receive only one opportunity to assert their claims against a defendant in court. The doctrine of res judicata, also known as “claim preclusion,” prevents a party from re-litigating a claim once a court has issued a final…
A critically important principle of the United States is that the public has a general right to know what the government is doing. Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966 to provide the executive branch of the federal government with directives for which information should be…
During the discovery phase of litigation, parties to a lawsuit can obtain evidence from one another through written requests and oral depositions. Sometimes, necessary information or evidence is in the possession of an individual or organization that is not a party to the lawsuit. Chapter…
The Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005 expanded federal courts' ability to exercise subject matter jurisdiction over class actions filed in state court. It allows defendants to remove class actions to federal court when they meet certain standards, including a minimum number of…