The docket, annotated.

Litigation writing tends to arrive in two registers. There is the academic register — thorough, footnoted, and usually a step removed from the choices a lawyer actually faces on a Tuesday before a filing deadline. And there is the marketing register, which exists to be found by search engines and forgotten by everyone else. Both have their place. Neither tells you much about how cases are actually fought.

litigation.blog is an attempt at a third register: working notes. Short, careful pieces about the procedural machinery and substantive law that decide real disputes — the kind of thing one litigator would send another with the subject line “worth your time.”

What we cover

Two tracks, side by side.

Immigration litigation — suits against the federal immigration agencies: mandamus and APA actions over delayed adjudications, naturalization litigation, and federal-court review of agency decisions. This is the editor’s side of the docket.

Civil litigation — business and commercial disputes in the state and federal courts: pleadings and motion practice, injunctions, discovery, and trial. Coverage on this track comes from contributing colleagues in private practice, writing in their own names.

How we write

Three commitments, kept short enough to be enforceable.

First, every citation is to a source the author has actually read. Not skimmed, not summarized by software — read.

Second, commentary is labeled as commentary. Where a question is unsettled, we say so, and we do not round an open question up to a holding.

Third, nothing here is legal advice. Essays discuss the law in general terms; they are no substitute for counsel who knows your facts, your forum, and your deadline.

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The site will grow slowly and deliberately — essays are added when they are ready, not on a content calendar. If you want to follow along, the RSS feed is the only subscription mechanism; there is no mailing list, no tracking, and nothing to accept or dismiss.

Welcome to the docket. §