Commercial Litigation Update

Litigants and attorneys often assume—wrongly—that arbitration proceedings are completely confidential. In fact, there are many ways that private arbitration proceedings can become subject to public scrutiny.

The Third Circuit recently affirmed the significant discretion that district court judges have to manage their dockets when it confirmed that “good cause” must be shown under Federal Rule Civ. P. 16(b)(4) to add a party or amend a pleading after the deadline in a district court’s scheduling order has passed rather than Rule 15(a)’s more liberal (“[t]he court should freely give leave when justice so requires”) standard. In Premier Comp Solutions, LLC v. UPMC, 970 F.3d 316 (3d Cir. 2020), the plaintiff made a motion to amend its complaint and add a party, relying on Rule 15 of ...