Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Folkman LLC

Posts by Ted Folkman

Lago Agrio: Second Circuit Affirms Donziger’s Pretrial Conditions of Release

Posted on March 30, 2021

In a non-precedential decision, the Second Circuit has affirmed the district court’s order denying Steven Donziger’s motion for relief from the conditions of his pretrial release, which has amounted to home confinement (with exceptions) while he awaits trial in May on the charges of criminal contempt. If you want to read bombastic takes on the decision, you can check out Twitter, where Donziger’s lawyer is quoted as calling the case “a major stain on the U.S. federal judiciary,” and Donziger itself accuses Judge Preska of being “a leader of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society.” My non-bombastic (I hope!) take is that Donziger had a good point in arguing that since the government has decided to seek only six months’ imprisonment or less if Donziger is…

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What’s In A Name? New Rules For The HCCH Conventions

Posted on March 29, 2021

Readers, I would like to invite you to participate with me in what may be a Sisyphean task—to change the names we give to the HCCH conventions when we speak or write about them. Instead of calling it the “Hague Service Convention,” or, heaven forbid, the “Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters,” we should call it the “HCCH 1965 Service Convention.” Ditto for the HCCH 1970 Evidence Convention and the others.

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Case of the Day: Ford v. Montana

Posted on March 26, 2021

The case of the day is Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court (S. Ct. 2021). It’s an personal jurisdiction decision that keeps the law from going off the rails but also may be important in its future implications. The case involved a car accident that took place in one US state, the state where the injured plaintiff lived. Ford didn’t manufacture or design the car in that state, but it did advertise, sell, and service the car model that was involved in the accident there. Ford claimed that the state court lacked personal jurisdiction because it hadn’t manufactured or designed the particular car in question in that state, but the court rejected its argument: “When a company like Ford serves a…

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