The Rhode Island Supreme Court has held that a defendant forfeited his personal jurisdiction defense asserted in his answer by participating in extensive discovery and court-annexed arbitration before moving to dismiss on the eve of trial. Pullar v. Cappelli, No....
Superior Court Presiding Justice Gibney, who manages Rhode Island's state court asbestos docket, has issued a decision denying a summary judgment motion filed by an alleged supplier of floor and ceiling tiles to which plaintiff's decedent was exposed. Pisano v. Alfa...
In a pair of recent decisions in two different cases, Presiding Justice Gibney of the Rhode Island Supreme Court has granted and denied motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction by the same asbestos defendant based on whether the defendant had forfeited its...
In a wide-ranging memorandum and order on several discovery motions, Magistrate Judge Sullivan addressed, inter alia, whether parties in a commercial dispute must produce documents in their "native" electronic format in addition to the PDF form in which they were...
The First Circuit Court of Appeal has held that Daubert does not require that an expert actually test an alternative design for a product before he can testify that it is safer than the defendant's design. Quilez-Velar v. Ox Bodies, Inc. 823 F.3d 712 (1st Cir. 2016)....
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a comprehensive opinion clarifying many legal issues in sex discrimination claims, including (1) whether a plaintiff can prove discrimination by circumstantial evidence alone; (2) whether a reduction of job...
In a suit we brought as cooperating attorneys for the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, Strauss Factor has obtained summary judgment for the owner of firearms seized by a local police department because the defendants failed to provide the...
Resolving a split among the lower courts, the United States Supreme Court has held that a provision of the Bankruptcy Code that prohibits debtors from discharging debts "obtained by...false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud," can include transactions...
The Rhode Island federal district court has held that the City of Cranston cannot include the population of the state's Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI) when it draws its districts for city council. Davidson v. City of Cranston, C.A. 14-91L, slip op., (D.R.I. May...
The Supreme Court has held unanimously that private attorneys hired by the Ohio Attorney General to collect debts owed to agencies of the State of Ohio did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by sending out demand letters on the Attorney...
