CCL President Robert S. Peck spoke about recent decisions, rules proposals, and legislation that attempts to reverse the traditional idea that a plaintiff is master of the complaint at the American Association for Justice’s 2014 Leaders Forum Retreat in La Jolla, California on May 18.  Under the master of the complaint rule, a plaintiff may choose the claims and venue in which a dispute is litigated, subject to limited exceptions.  However, according to Peck, control over that process is rapidly diminishing and the obstacles to a person’s day in court, which was the promise of the 1938 adoption of the Federal Rules of Procedure, are growing. Specifically, Peck addressed issues of jurisdiction, removal to federal court, the plausibility requirement coming out of the Supreme Court’s Iqbal and Twombly decisions, the modern use of summary judgment, the battle over class actions, discovery, and renewed efforts to change state rules of procedure.  Peck said that trial lawyers need to be aware of the trends, fight back to guarantee clients a day in court, and begin to develop their own proposals to assure effective justice, not just efficient disposition of cases.