Federal district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan has another word or two to say about Chevron in Ecuador. In a new ruling with the volume dial turned up to 11 Judge Kaplan concluded that the need to depose lead U.S. plaintiffs’ lawyer Steven Donziger is “extremely great.” In the process, he fleshed out the evidence he perceives of fraud on the Ecuadorian courts — drawing on the outtakes from the film Crude that are excerpted below.
Asked for additional comment, plaintiffs asked readers to view their own collection of outtakes, and offered a statement responding to the first six outtakes that were posted by The American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel. Donziger did not respond to additional requests for comment. In past interviews he has stressed the preliminary and weak standard of evidence applicable in discovery rulings. Both plaintiffs and Donziger have denied any misconduct.
