Authored By: Jennifer Grieco and Steve McKenney Litigators handling construction disputes are keenly aware of the respective ninety-day and one-year limitations for recording and seeking to foreclose on construction liens. Given the prevalence of arbitration provisions in construction contracts, litigators are often faced with the issue of how to pursue a claim to establish the validity of...
Authored By: Kenneth Neuman and Matthew Smith Does a contract provide for the sale of goods or for the provision of services? This is, of course, the threshold question attorneys are faced with in determining whether their client’s contract dispute is governed by common law or the strictures of Article 2 of Michigan’s Uniform Commercial Code. For decades, Michigan law has...
Authored By: David Mollicone and Nicholas North On December 21, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court issued its Order concerning proposed amendments to MCR 7.202 and MCR 7.209. The proposed amendments would remove “an order denying governmental immunity to a governmental party, including a governmental agency, official, or employee under MCR 2.116(C)(7) or an order denying a motion for...
Authored By: Kenneth F. Neuman and Stephen McKenney Michigan law has long distinguished between actions that may be properly brought by a shareholder on a direct, rather than derivative, basis. The established dividing line has traditionally focused on whether an action is brought “to enforce corporate rights or to redress or prevent...
Authored By: Matthew Smith and Jennifer Grieco The advent of medical and recreational marihuana licensure in Michigan has proven to be a boon for litigation throughout the state. Many municipalities that have chosen to enact ordinances permitting medical and recreational licenses have been met with litigation arising from the selection of winners and losers in the licensing...
Authored By: David Mollicone and Jennifer Cupples Effective September 1, 2022, the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct expanded with the addition of MRPC 1.19. The new rule, entitled “Lawyer-Client Representation Agreements: Arbitration Provisions,” requires that a client either be independently represented in entering into an agreement...
Authored By: Jennifer Cupples and Jennifer Grieco Block billing is a common time-keeping practice in which attorneys use a single billing entry for total daily time spent on multiple tasks. In various unpublished opinions, the Michigan Court of Appeals has previously rejected arguments that the use of block billing is per se vague or improper – so long as the entries within the blocks are...
Authored By: Stephen McKenney and Kenneth Neuman Many Michigan litigators have been met with this roadblock: “Not until the court decides by motion.” Discovery is ongoing, and your opposing counsel believes their pending motion for summary disposition – in which the court is permitted to consider evidence outside the pleadings – will dispose of the case. But where...
Authored By: Matt Smith and Dave Mollicone On January 1, 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court’s amendments to the long-standing case evaluation rule, MCR 2.403, took effect. Most notable among them is the elimination of sanctions against a rejecting party. But unclear is the timing of the amended rule’s application to cases filed, ordered, or evaluated relative to the effective date of...
Authored By: Matthew Smith and Jennifer Grieco Referral and fee-sharing agreements between attorneys are nothing new. When presented with a matter outside of an attorney’s practice, public policy supports referring the client to an attorney with specialized knowledge in that area of law. In such instances, Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(e) allows the specialist and...
