To amend, or not to amend? That may not be “the question” posed in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” but it is “the question” a plaintiff should ask itself upon receiving, and before responding to, a motion from the defendant to dismiss a complaint. A recent letter opinion from the desk of Vice Chancellor Glasscock in In re USG Corporation Stockholder Litigation, No. 2018-0602-SG (Del. Ch. March 11, 2021) (the Letter Opinion) reminds Delaware litigants about the importance of thinking through that question and the potential consequences of an imprudent answer.

Background

Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock issued his Letter Opinion in response to the plaintiffs motion for leave to file a second amended class action complaint (the motion), which, in the court’s words, came to it “in oddly circuitous fashion.” Circuitous is an apt description for the lead up to the Motion, which took center stage after two years of civil litigation.