1: Paragraph 27 There are, after all, only two possible rulings on a
motion for anything -- it's either granted, or it's denied -- and the
recurring issues have well established standards the court is required
to consider. Probably the most frequent issue they decide is the motion
for preliminary injunction: Every time the Wall Street Journal says
there's going to be a tender offer for a company, at least one of its
stockholders files a class action to enjoin the deal. There are three
points a party has to prove to get a preliminary injunction, so the
Chancery Court should have a one-page preliminary injunction opinion
form that has, for each of those three questions, a "no" box and a "yes"
box with a blank next to it for the judge to fill in the fact that
proved that point. Then the word processor could spit out the
standardized preliminary injunction opinion with those customizations --
"You may have already won a preliminary injunction, Plaintiff Insert
Name Here" -- and citations to the latest precedents on each point.
1: Paragraph 28 So why don't they do that, if it would be easier and
faster? Because the big legal business in Delaware is corporation
litigation, and nobody here wants to streamline the process and so cut
down on the profits from it. Most lawyers in Wilmington (which is the
bulk of the lawyers in Delaware, using that word in several different
senses) are or want to be local counsel for out-of-state lawyers in
corporation cases; the ethics rules governing lawyers say they can't
split fees except in the same proportions they split the work, and the
only work local counsel can usually claim to do is supply the expertise
on local practice and precedents.
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