Any litigators with 1983 defense experience?
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:58 pm
Just curious if any 1983 defense litigators could tell me what a typical day is like for them
1983 0L paralegal here (Plaintiffs).
My impression of our opponents is that their days look like other defense litigators' days. Fighting about discovery, defending depositions, trying to make us look bad in front of the magistrate/trial judge, researching legal issues, hiring/guiding experts to torpedo our expert reports.
What the day looks like depends on what part of the litigation timeline you're in.
I would bet managing relationships with Defendants in 1983 cases can be tricky. They tend to be giant bureaucratic named defendant prisons/Governors/ cabinet officials with tons of intermediaries. Producing discovery from these guys is probably tricky too, especially if you get into policy and custom/aggregate data requests. Would be interested in hearing war stories about these issues.