Supreme Court Should Address Ambiguous Federal Pleading Standards

Bracewell & Giuliani attorneys Dan Meyers and Kedar S. Bhatia explain how the combined factors of ambiguous and inconsistently applied pleading standards and burgeoning e-discovery costs create a ripe opportunity for plaintiffs with frivolous claims to more easily extract settlements, as defendants, typically faced with six or seven-figure discovery costs, often choose to settle cases that should have been dismissed. A case now before the Supreme Court – Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens – is an opportunity for the Court to help remedy the situation by offering improved guidance regarding what constitutes a case that is plausible enough to be allowed to proceed to the discovery phase.