United States v. Brace, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2021). Every so often, attorney conduct is so egregiously bad that it results in a published opinion, and a lesson to other attorneys. This opinion by Judge Bibas is one of those. This was a suit against defendants for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act by, among other things, digging up dirt, rocks, and other material and dumping it back into defendants’ wetlands property without a permit. In defending the case, defense counsel did just about every wrong thing that one can do. The result was that the District Court struck...

United States v. Brito, 979 F.3d 185 (3d Cir. 2020). As discussed here, waiver of an argument occurs when a party intentionally relinquishes or abandons a contention, while forfeiture is the failure to assert an argument in timely fashion, without intent to give up that argument. That sometimes esoteric distinction became important in this criminal case, which involved an appeal of the sentence imposed by the District Court. Judge Bibas summarized well the outlines of this case at the outset of his opinion. “Francisco Brito, a felon, claims that he changed his ways once his daughter...

Premier Comp Solutions, LLC v. UPMC, 730 F.3d 316 (3d Cir. 2020). Under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, amendments to pleadings are liberally granted. But when a Scheduling Order sets a deadline for amending pleadings, Rule 16(b)(4) requires “good cause” for an amendment. In this case, plaintiff sought to add a defendant after an amendment deadline had passed (and after that deadline had been extended once). Plaintiff’s motion relied only on Rule 15’s “liberally granted” standard. When the UPMC defendants opposed the motion and called...