Schedule A: Where Convenience & Civil Procedure Clash

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has become an assembly line for Schedule A lawsuits, in which the complaint’s first exhibit names a list of the defendants—mostly small, Chinese-based sellers on platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. Although not a class action, Schedule A complaints amass online storefronts to consolidate battles against intellectual property theft. In his January Illinois Bar Journal article, ”Schedule A: Where Convenience & Civil Procedure Clash,” Christopher Keleher walks through the steps of a Schedule A lawsuit and points to signs that Northern District judges are getting fed up with being the court through which Almost 90 percent of such cases in the country are funneled.

Read the "Schedule A: Where Convenience & Civil Procedure Clash" in the January Illinois Bar Journal.