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Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 1.4.5 Organizing Factual Information

Organization of the facts and the file should begin as soon as you know that you will commence litigation. Your system should be flexible enough to accommodate growth of the file. The particular way that you organize your file will depend on its potential size, the type of case, your personal style, and your program’s use of computer case management tools.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 9.2.4 Private Settlements

A settlement whose terms are not incorporated into a decree entered by the court stands on a very different legal footing from a consent decree. Most commonly, when cases are resolved by such an agreement, the parties terminate the litigation by a stipulation of dismissal which may or may not refer to the agreement. In Kokkonen v.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 9.2.20 Attorney’s Fees

While obtaining a consent decree should be sufficient in itself to justify plaintiffs’ entitlement to fees, other forms of settlement may be more problematic after Buckhannon.4442 Obtaining an agreement that plaintiffs are the prevailing party and entitled to specified fees is often possible and should be pursued. Such an agreement will likely avoid litigation over the issue and establish the right to a fee award.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 9.4.23 Taxation of Attorneys’ Fees

In Comm’r of Internal Revenue v. Banks, the Court held that “as a general rule, when a litigant's recovery constitutes income, the litigant's income includes the portion of the recovery paid to the attorney as a contingent fee.”4674 The Court in Banks did not rule on the question most legal aid and public interest attorneys confront, where fees are received through a fee-shifting statute, such as § 1988.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 2.3.4 The Substantial Federal Element

A case clearly arises under the Constitution for purposes of § 1331 when the plaintiff claims, for example, that a government officer or employee, acting in his or her official capacity, injures the plaintiff by taking an action that violates a provision of the Constitution or by acting pursuant to an unconstitutional statute. The federal question jurisdiction of the district courts also encompasses causes of action created by federal statutes, such as 42 U.S.C.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 6.8.1 The Daubert Admissibility Standard for Expert Testimony

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Supreme Court set the standards for the admissibility of scientific expert opinion.3077 Expert testimony is only admissible if it meets certain “gatekeeping” requirements, which include that the expert is qualified through education, knowledge, experience, skill, or training to render an expert opinion and the expert's methodology is sufficiently reliable to support the proposed opinions.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 6.1.4 Matters for Discussion at the Rule 26(f) Meeting of the Parties

At the Rule 26(f) meeting, counsel and unrepresented parties must confer to “consider the nature and basis of their claims and defenses and the possibilities for promptly settling or resolving the case; make or arrange for the disclosures required by Rule 26(a)(1); discuss any issues about preserving discoverable information; and develop a proposed discovery plan.”2246

The parties must also develop a discovery plan that addresses the subjects listed in Rule 26(f)(3), which are:

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 6.1.11 Assignment of Magistrate Judges

U.S. magistrate judges may be used in two circumstances.2280 First, they may act, in effect, as district judges and decide cases on the merits when the parties consent. Indeed, one of the most significant decisions you will make shortly after the parties have entered appearances in the lawsuit is whether to consent to referring the case to the magistrate to hear and decide on the merits.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 6.3.11 Rule 19 Motion for Joinder of Parties

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19 governs the mandatory joinder of parties.2804 Advocates who engage in affirmative litigation against corporate entities—e.g., employers of low-wage workers, debt collectors, large apartment complexes, or predatory lenders—may learn in discovery that they must join additional defendants (often related corporate entities) to obtain full relief or because any relief ordered in the action would necessarily affect those other business entities.

Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys: 9.3.3 Remedies

The unique feature of the Declaratory Judgment Act is its authorization to “declare” the rights and legal relations of the parties to the controversy; such declarations have the force and effect of a final judgment.4495 Congress plainly intended declaratory relief to substitute, in appropriate cases, for the “strong medicine” of an injunction.4496 Since a declaratory judgment does not have the coercive power of an injunction, a lesser showing is required to obtain declaratory relief.