imageA tough clause to beat

A little over two years ago, the Supreme Court held that judges must enforce forum-choice clauses in the absence of “extraordinary” reasons “unrelated to the convenience of the parties”. Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. United States District  Court for the Western District of Texas, 134 S. Ct. 568, 580 (2013).

On the day that  the 9-0 Court handed down Atlantic MarineI wrote that it “will bring joy to firms that put [the] clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.”

Has the case borne out my forecast of joy?

Yes. Yes indeed.
Continue Reading The Value of Forum-Choice Clauses

A contract dispute over building a child-development center at Fort Hood, in central Texas, today spawned a ruling that will bring joy to firms that put forum-choice clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.

The agreement between Atlantic Marine Construction Company and J-Crew Management, Inc., stated that all disputes between the

The Federal Circuit today ruled that the Eastern District of Texas has the wrong idea about whether Rule 20(a) lets plaintiffs sue a bunch of defendants in one patent infringement case simply because they all infringed the same patents.

You have to show something more, it held — such as that the defendants somehow acted