Business Litigation

Turn research into results with the only California-specific legal know-how solution.


Legal Know-How for California Business Litigators

When you’re litigating business disputes in multiple California counties, you need detailed procedural guidance at the county level in combination with detailed guidance on the applicable law. Use Practitioner’s Workflows, How-To Guides, Strategy Notes, Charts, Checklists, and annotated Sample Documents to guide you from start to finish of your business dispute, with detailed coverage of breach of contract issues, including the UCC, as well as business torts, partnership disputes, and insurance coverage.


Included Know-How Resources

We’re always updating and adding new content, but browse a list of selected content to decide whether Practitioner | Business Law is right for you:

Breach of Contract 

  • How to evaluate whether a third-party beneficiary has a right to enforce a contract.
  • Strategic considerations in bringing a breach of contract action
  • Demand letter for breach of contract claim
  • California Complaint for Injunctive Relief
  • Checklist: Breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing
  • Sample demurrer for failure to allege fats that support a breach of contract claim
  • Checklist: affirmative defense of unilateral mistake
  • How to Determine Whether Attorney-Client Privilege Protects Corporate Communications
  • How to analyze and prove breach of contract damages
  • Allegations for seller’s recovery of price under the UCC

Discovery 

  • Workflow: Discovery in California State Courts
  • Workflow: Discovery in California Federal District Courts
  • Workflow: Filing Under Seal
  • How to Manage Discovery Requests in the Eastern Federal District (and other CA district courts)
  • How to Manage Discovery (Fresno County & other CA counties)
  • How to Obtain Discovery Sanctions
  • Meet and Confer Letter: Deficiencies in Responses to Form and Special Interrogatories
  • Benefits of early Disclosure of Expert Witnesses
  • Litigation Hold Letter to Opposing Counsel
  • How to Notice the Deposition of a Witness Outside of the United States

Motion Practice  

  • Workflow: Motion Practice
  • How to Navigate Law and Motion Procedures (Contra Costa County & other CA counties)
  • How to Draft, File, and Serve a Noticed Motion
  • Generic Request for Judicial Notice
  • How to Draft, Circulate, File, and Serve an Order After Hearing
  • How to Obtain an Order to Show Cause
  • How to File a Motion to Be Relieved as Attorney of Record
  • How to Move for a Preliminary Injunction
  • How to Draft and File a Motion to Determine Good Faith of Settlement
  • Plaintiff’s Notice and Motion to Tax Costs

Summary Judgment & Summary Adjudication  

  • Summary Judgment Legal Standard
  • Federal Summary Judgment Legal Standard
  • Summary Adjudication Legal Standard
  • Comparison of Summary Adjudication Procedures
  • Checklist: Deciding Whether to Move for Summary Judgment or Summary Adjudication
  • How to Make and Oppose a Summary Judgment or Adjudication Motion in California State Court
  • Strategic Considerations in Opposing Summary Judgment
  • How to Oppose a Motion for Summary Judgment
  • Objections to Evidence in Separate Statement

Business Torts  

  • Checklist: Cause of action for negligent misrepresentation
  • Sample Stipulated Protective Order
  • Strategic Considerations in Evaluating Potential Damages for Business Torts
  • California Declaration Supporting TRO and Preliminary Injunction
  • California Declaration of Personal Surety’s Qualifications
  • Checklist: Civil Conspiracy
  • Trade Libel Cause of Action Checklist
  • Unfair Competition Cause of Action Checklist
  • Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Relations Cause of Action Checklist
  • Violation of California Consumer Legal Remedies Act

Insurance Coverage  

  • Strategic considerations in identifying business insurance coverage in a client interview
  • Checklist: Reading and Interpreting an Insurance Policy
  • How to Analyze an Insurance Policy
  • How to Determine Whether an Insurance Contract is Enforceable
  • Sample Policy LImit Demand
  • How to Frame a Complaint to Trigger Insurance Coverage
  • Insurance Coverage Considerations for Businesses During Civil Unrest
  • How to Bring an Action for Declaratory Relief Against an Insurer
  • How to Bring an Action for Failure to Defend
  • Sample Complaint for Breach of Contract and Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing (Insurer’s Refusal to Defend)

Partnership Disputes  

  • How to Dissolve and Wind-Up a Partnership
  • Specific Enforcement of Partnership Buy-Sell Agreements
  • Breach of Fiduciary Duty Cause of Action Checklist
  • Checklist: Grounds for Dissociating Partner
  • Sample Complaint for Breach of Fiduciary Duty (Partnership)
  • Form for Dissolution of a Law Partnership
  • Sample motion for summary judgment on partnership dispute claim
  • Memorandum in Support of Motion for Order to Charge Partner’s Interest and Appoint Receiver
  • Strategic Considerations in Responding to Complaints Alleging Partnership Disputes
  • Chart: Differences in Dissociation Actions When Dealing With General Partners Versus Limited Partners


Workflows

Work smarter by accessing all Practitioner’s resources via Workflows that provide a logical and dynamic overview of major categories of work and legal tasks required by specific types of California state and federal cases. Find the specific resource you need, when you need it, while understanding how that resource fits into the broader context of your case.  

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How-To Guides

Spend less time navigating the local rules of court and multiple pages on each court’s website. Let the judges in the California counties and district courts you practice in guide you guide you through the proper procedure. Each How-To Guide provides clear, concise step-by-step guidance, including Judge’s Perspective notes, Practice Notes, and more. 

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Strategy Notes

The best lawyers always want to know how other experienced practitioners analyze the issues. Strategy Notes give you an outline of the key strategic and tactical considerations you should take into account when analyzing a new development in your practice area, approaching settlement negotiations, or advising your client.  

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Charts & Checklists

Not everything requires in-depth legal research. Sometimes all you need is a quick overview of the key tasks or issues, or a reminder to not to forget an important step. Includes Cause of Action Checklists that outline the key elements, statutes of limitations, relevant jury instructions, remedies, and damages for a particular claim.   

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Sample Documents

High-quality templates, forms, and standard clauses, with detailed Guidance Comment annotations explaining the document’s requirements, as well as how, when, or why to adapt the sample language or use an alternate clause. Downloadable in Word, either with or without Guidance Comments.  

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Included Practice Guides

All practice guides are fully integrated with CEB’s Primary Law with TrueCite, so you don’t have to switch to a different platform to ensure the cases you’re citing are still good law.

Business Entities 

  • Advising California Nonprofit Corporations
  • Advising California Partnerships
  • Counseling California Corporations
  • Financing and Protecting California Businesses
  • Forming and Operating California Limited Liability Companies
  • Organizing Corporations in California
  • Selecting and Forming Business Entities
  • Understanding Fiduciary Duties in Business Entities

Intellectual Property

  • Internet Law and Practice in California
  • Trade Secrets Practice in California

Business Transactions

  • Business Buy-Sell Agreements
  • California Law of Contracts
  • California UCC Sales and Leases
  • Drafting Business Contracts: Principles, Techniques & Forms
  • Sales and Mergers of California Businesses
  • Secured Transactions in California Commercial Law Practice

Employment Law

  • Drafting Employment Documents for California Employers
  • Advising California Employers and Employees
  • CA Wage and Hour Law and Litigation

Business Litigation

  • California Civil Procedure Before Trial
  • California Civil Discovery Practice
  • California Business Litigation
  • Debt Collection Practice in California
  • Privacy Compliance and Litigation in California
  • Trade Secrets Practice in California

Law Practice Management

  • California Basic Practice Handbook
  • California Client Communications Manual
  • Fee Agreement Forms Manual

State & Local Government

  • The Municipal Law Handbook

Still need primary law and secondary sources? Don’t worry, you get those, too.

Practitioner is your all-in-one practical guidance and legal research solution. All subscriptions include CEB’s primary law research tool with TrueCite™, our powerful case law citator. Plus, you get a comprehensive set of curated practice guides in your chosen practice area(s).

Primary Law with TrueCite™

Leverage our best-in-class legal search to find the most relevant content, fast. Narrow your results with advanced filters, including court, cause of action, procedural posture, and disposition. Coverage includes California Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court case law, as well as the California Codes and California Constitution. Plus, TrueCite™’s color-coded treatment flags let you know at a glance whether a case is still good law.

California-Focused Practice Guides

Rely on CEB’s expert community of contributing judges and lawyers to frame and organize the legal issues for you before you dive into case law research or start drafting. The most trusted and comprehensive California-specific practice guides available, in curated practice area libraries that meet the needs of California lawyers.


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