Summary judgment is expensive and the grant rate in commercial cases is modest. The decision to move should be made deliberately.

When it is worth it. A dispositive legal question on undisputed facts — contract interpretation, limitations, standing, a release, a waiver, the absence of an element with no evidentiary support.

Partial motions narrowing the case are frequently more valuable than all-or-nothing motions: striking a damages theory, establishing the governing law, removing a claim that carries fee-shifting or punitive exposure.

When it is not. Where the case turns on intent, credibility, reasonableness, or competing inferences. Filing anyway educates the other side and produces a ruling identifying the disputed facts for trial.

Collateral benefits. A well-supported motion produces an evaluation by the other side’s counsel, drives settlement, and forces both sides to assemble the trial record early.

Collateral costs. It reveals your evidence and theory, it commits you to positions, and a denial cited at trial is unhelpful.

Statement of undisputed facts with record citations, prepared as the spine of the motion. Most motions fail on the facts rather than the law, and a statement built from documents and admissions rather than from argument is what survives.