The trial of Chevron’s claims against the Lago Agrio plaintiffs and Steven Donziger starts today in New York. Unfortunately, all of Letters Blogatory’s staff reporters are busy on other assignments, so I will not have live coverage. Here are a few updates from the docket in the final lead-up to the trial: The Surprise Documents.……

As trial approaches, there were several developments in the Chevron case in New York yesterday: Sanctions. The judge, on Chevron’s motion, has sanctioned Donziger and the LAPs for failure to comply with his discovery orders with respect to documents in Ecuador. This is a very strong and very long opinion, and I am not going……

Update (10/9/13): The Republic of Ecuador’s lawyer had chimed in, seeking to protect the Republic’s privileged communications and raising the suspicion that someone may have obtained them illegally. Here are excerpts from the email the email: Gentlemen, I was informally served yesterday by Gibson Dunn with a proposed Order to Show Cause and supporting papers……

Judge Kaplan has held that in light of Chevron’s decision not to seek damages, Donziger and the LAPs are not entitled to a trial by jury. I had previously questioned whether Judge Kaplan would accept Chevron’s waiver of its damages claims, which was framed in such as way as to suggest that Chevron might not……