State v. Berg’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “We agree with the District Court that Berg’s witness list was untimely. Nevertheless, we conclude that the District Court’s imposition of the harshest sanction available in this case, the exclusion of Berg’s witnesses, was an abuse of the District Court’s discretion. Our review of the record indicates that Berg’s failure to timely disclose witnesses was not willful and that the State would not have been unduly prejudiced or surprised by Berg’s noncompliance, since the proffered witnesses were known to the State. We agree with the District Court that a sanction was appropriate, however we conclude that under these circumstances, a less severe sanction should have been imposed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Dezeeuw

2. “Consistent with th[at] goal, § 46-15-329, MCA, provides a means of enforcing discovery orders. It endows the district courts with the flexibility to impose sanctions commensurate with the failure to comply with discovery orders. The statute does not mandate automatic exclusion for non-compliance. By its terms, § 46-15-329 provides that “the court may impose any sanction that it finds just under the circumstances.” Such discretion allows the court to consider the reason why disclosure was not made, whether the noncompliance was willful, the amount of prejudice to the opposing party, and any other relevant circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Dezeeuw

3. “The trial judge ought not to be held in error because of the Defendant’s choice to ignore the discovery rules; to ignore the court’s discovery orders;... and to play fast and loose with the court.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Dezeeuw