The same damaged roof produces two different numbers depending on which measure the policy uses. Replacement cost pays what a repair costs; actual cash value pays that figure less depreciation, and the difference is usually held back until the work is done.
The obligation to preserve evidence arises when litigation is reasonably anticipated rather than when a suit is filed. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) presupposes that duty by asking whether information that should have been preserved was lost because reasonable steps were not taken. Anticipation is judged objectively on what an organization knew, and knowledge held by managers and counsel is generally attributed to the organization.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(b)(1) allows a restraining order without notice only where specific facts in an affidavit or verified complaint clearly show that immediate and irreparable injury will occur before the adverse party can be heard, and the movant's attorney certifies in writing the efforts made to give notice and the reasons notice should not be required. Both showings are conditions on the court's power, not formalities, and a failure in either is a ground to dissolve.
An emergency filing must be served on the government, and in an emergency posture the service has to be actual rather than merely formal. The appellate and civil rules require service and proof of it. Relief granted without notice is available only on a specific showing of why notice was impossible and what efforts were made. Notifying the enforcement office holding the person is a separate step from serving the lawyers who will oppose the motion.
A notice of pendency, also called a lis pendens, is recorded against real property to give constructive notice that litigation may affect title. A person whose conveyance or encumbrance is recorded afterward takes subject to the outcome. The claim must be one that would affect title, possession or use of specific real property, and the principal defense is a motion to expunge or cancel, on which the claimant generally bears the burden of establishing the claim's probable validity.
What can be filed in hours when someone is about to be detained, removed or turned away.
All articlesFour factors decide a stay, and the first two carry most of the weight a court gives the question. Both have to be established on whatever record can be assembled in a day, and that constraint, rather than the standard itself, is what makes the motion difficult to write well.
A party seeking a preliminary injunction or restraining order in federal court must establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits, that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm without relief, that the balance of equities tips in its favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest. The Supreme Court has rejected the view that a mere possibility of harm suffices. Where the government is the opposing party, the last two factors are treated as one inquiry.
A preliminary injunction may issue only on notice to the adverse party under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(a)(1). The court may advance the trial on the merits and consolidate it with the hearing under Rule 65(a)(2), and evidence received on the motion that would be admissible at trial becomes part of the trial record without being repeated. The resulting order runs until final judgment or further order, must state its findings, and requires security fixed on a fuller record.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d)(2) provides that an injunction or restraining order binds the parties, the parties' officers, agents, servants, employees and attorneys, and other persons who are in active concert or participation with any of them. Every category is conditioned on receiving actual notice of the order by personal service or otherwise. A stranger to the case who acts independently is not bound, and an order purporting to bind the world is enforceable only within these limits.
The duty that attaches the moment litigation becomes foreseeable.
All articlesA presumption that lost evidence was unfavorable, a jury instruction to that effect, dismissal or default: all three depend on a single finding about why the material disappeared. Negligence will not reach it, however severe the consequences of the loss turn out to be.
The automatic stay, and the motions heard in the first days of a case.
All articlesSection 362(c)(3) provides that where an individual debtor had a case pending within the preceding year that was dismissed, the stay terminates on the thirtieth day after the later filing with respect to the debtor. Section 362(c)(4) provides that where two or more such cases were dismissed, no stay goes into effect at all. In each situation a party in interest may move to continue or impose the stay, and must demonstrate that the later filing is in good faith.
First-day hearings are held within days of a business filing, on shortened notice, to authorize what the debtor needs to keep operating. Rule 6003 prohibits granting listed applications within twenty-one days after the petition is filed unless relief is needed to avoid immediate and irreparable harm, and expressly does not apply to motions under Rule 4001. Cash collateral and financing are therefore heard first, with final hearings following after full notice.
Section 362(a) provides that the filing of a petition operates as a stay, applicable to all entities, of eight described categories of act. It takes effect on filing, requires no order, and binds parties who have no knowledge of the case. Its two branches expire on different terms: the stay of acts against estate property continues while the property remains estate property, and the stay of other acts continues until the case closes, is dismissed, or a discharge is granted or denied.
Claiming on your own policy after a loss, and the deadlines that govern it.
All articlesThe coverage that pays for somewhere else to live is separate from the coverage that repairs the house, and it runs on its own clock. It pays the increase in living costs, not the whole cost, and it ends when the period in the policy or the statute does.
Most states require a filing with the attorney general once a set number of that state's residents must be notified. Five hundred is the most common figure, but the clock attached to it varies: some states measure from discovery, one measures from the date consumer notice goes out, and one requires a preliminary description long before consumers hear anything. Consumer reporting agencies form a third tier with higher counts and different content.
A covered entity must notify each affected individual without unreasonable delay and in no case later than sixty calendar days after discovery of a breach of unsecured protected health information. Discovery is defined by knowledge attributed across the workforce, not by the moment senior management is briefed. Breaches touching five hundred or more individuals require contemporaneous notice to the Secretary and notice to prominent media; smaller ones are logged and reported annually.
Where direct notice is not feasible, most state statutes permit a substitute consisting of email where addresses are held, a conspicuous posting on the entity's own website, and notification to major statewide media. The gateway is fixed: cost above two hundred fifty thousand dollars, an affected class above five hundred thousand, or insufficient contact information. The federal health rule uses a different gateway entirely, turning on whether contact details fail for ten or more individuals.
The notice an employer owes before closing a site or cutting a workforce.
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The powers a government claims in an emergency, and the limits courts have set.
All articlesFederal quarantine authority is narrow in scope and unusually specific about process. An order must rest on individualized findings, be reassessed by a different official within seventy-two hours, and be open to a medical review the detained person can request.
