The general rule in ordinary litigations is that plaintiffs may frame their complaints as they wish and agree to take less money than they might otherwise be due in order to stay in state court.
And he was talking about ordinary civil litigation, not mortal combat with the government.
Regulatory guidelines say companies must disclose "any material pending legal proceedings, other than ordinary routine litigation incidental to the business".
In cases involving a penalty the three judges had to be ordained, but in those involving ordinary monetary litigation ordination was not required.
In ordinary civil litigation, it is not unusual for courts to say that the clock starts running in fraud cases only when the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the wrongdoing.
The appeals court unanimously concluded that those arguments are "better addressed through the ordinary course of litigation".
This sort of human error is unfortunate but not out of the ordinary in complex litigation in both civilian and military systems, and both sides work together to resolve any issues that arise.
So what does it mean for ordinary people involved in civil litigation?
Professor Nagareda is right that the Merck litigation is different from an ordinary injury case, and he is honest enough to say that its settlement is at odds with traditional ideas about what lawyers do.
An important issue in the litigation lay in whether the "natural and ordinary meaning" of the language of the Basic Law should be paramount, most notably in interpreting the term "ordinarily resident," or whether a broader statutory context should be considered.
Where constitutional courts exist, questions concerning the validity of statutory laws or executive actions reach the court chiefly through referrals from the judges of ordinary courts, who certify the presence of a constitutional question in the litigation, or through appeals by the losing parties, who assert that the decisions of ordinary courts have deprived them of their constitutional rights.
