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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Law
Jural Entities, Real Parties In Controversy, And Representative Litigants: A Unified Approach To The Diversity Jurisdiction Requirements For Business Organizations, Charles A. Szypszak
Jural Entities, Real Parties In Controversy, And Representative Litigants: A Unified Approach To The Diversity Jurisdiction Requirements For Business Organizations, Charles A. Szypszak
Maine Law Review
The rules that make the federal courts available for the resolution of controversies between citizens of different states have often been described as placing an undue burden on the federal system. Congress has for the most part turned a deaf ear to calls by jurists and commentators for reform or even abolition of federal diversity jurisdiction, leaving the courts to struggle with difficult issues about the proper contours of the jurisdictional requirements. One recurring difficult issue is the manner in which citizenship is to be attributed to the investors who compose various business organizations. The general rule has been that …
The Unmet Legal Needs Of The Poor In Maine: Is Mandatory Pro Bono The Answer?, Wendy F. Rau
The Unmet Legal Needs Of The Poor In Maine: Is Mandatory Pro Bono The Answer?, Wendy F. Rau
Maine Law Review
In 1989, the Maine Commission on Legal Needs was formed to study the civil legal needs of Maine's poor population and to develop a plan for meeting those needs. Similar projects have been undertaken in a number of other states and by the American Bar Association in recent years. Each study has revealed a significant unmet need among the poor for assistance with legal problems. There seems little doubt that the situation is serious and widespread. The difficulty lies in finding a solution. One proposal that has been advanced is mandatory pro bono, a program that would require attorneys to …
Vincent L. Mckusick And The Maine Rules Of Civil Procedure: A Thirty-Five Year Perspective, L. Kinvin Wroth
Vincent L. Mckusick And The Maine Rules Of Civil Procedure: A Thirty-Five Year Perspective, L. Kinvin Wroth
Maine Law Review
The Editorial Board and Staff of Volume 43 of the Maine Law Review enthusiastically dedicate this issue to Vincent L. McKusick, Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Chief Justice McKusick took the oath of office on September 16, 1977, having been appointed the previous month by Governor James B. Longley, and will retire on February 28, 1992. As the following tributes make clear, the contributions he has made to the betterment of state and national legal institutions during his tenure evidence the same qualities of integrity and excellence that have been the hallmarks of his long and distinguished …
Jural Entities, Real Parties In Controversy, And Representative Litigants: A Unified Approach To The Diversity Jurisdiction Requirements For Business Organizations, Charles A. Szypszak
Jural Entities, Real Parties In Controversy, And Representative Litigants: A Unified Approach To The Diversity Jurisdiction Requirements For Business Organizations, Charles A. Szypszak
Maine Law Review
The rules that make the federal courts available for the resolution of controversies between citizens of different states have often been described as placing an undue burden on the federal system. Congress has for the most part turned a deaf ear to calls by jurists and commentators for reform or even abolition of federal diversity jurisdiction, leaving the courts to struggle with difficult issues about the proper contours of the jurisdictional requirements. One recurring difficult issue is the manner in which citizenship is to be attributed to the investors who compose various business organizations. The general rule has been that …
Some Limits On The Judicial Power To Restrict Dissemination Of Discovery, Thomas C. Bradley
Some Limits On The Judicial Power To Restrict Dissemination Of Discovery, Thomas C. Bradley
Maine Law Review
The pretrial process of discovery governed by Federal and Maine Rule of Civil Procedure 26 enables plaintiffs in product liability actions to delve where few people have delved before—into a corporation's internal memoranda, competitive practices, and secret product or design information as well as other less sensitive information in a company's possession. Discovery, in this context as in others, is a powerful tool determined by the courts to be necessary for the just litigation of claims. As a balance to the leeway given parties to compel production of information in discovery, federal and Maine courts have the authority under Federal …
Campbell V. Campbell: Requiring Adherence To The Correct Legal Standard In Child Custody Proceedings - The "Best Interest Of The Child", Lisa M. Fitzgibbon
Campbell V. Campbell: Requiring Adherence To The Correct Legal Standard In Child Custody Proceedings - The "Best Interest Of The Child", Lisa M. Fitzgibbon
Maine Law Review
Should a divorce court be permitted to consider evidence of a parent's misuse of legal process when rendering a child custody decree? In Campbell v. Campbell the Maine Superior Court concluded that Mrs. Campbell had sought an ex parte protection from abuse order against her husband in an effort to gain a tactical advantage in the custody proceeding—she did not need protection from abuse. The court then awarded Mr. Campbell custody of the children, on the basis of Mrs. Campbell's misuse of legal process. Yet, by focusing its attention upon one parent's conduct, the superior court deviated from what was …
Termination Of Hospital Medical Staff Privileges For Economic Reasons: An Appeal For Consistency, June D. Zellers, Michael R. Poulin
Termination Of Hospital Medical Staff Privileges For Economic Reasons: An Appeal For Consistency, June D. Zellers, Michael R. Poulin
Maine Law Review
The relationship between physicians and hospitals is undergoing significant change. Historically, a physician maintained a private practice in the community and looked to the local hospital for ancillary support when his or her patients were too ill to remain at home. This community-based physician gained access to the hospital by obtaining medical staff privileges. These privileges allowed the physician to admit patients to the hospital, treat patients while they were there, and use the hospital's staff and equipment. The physician generally enjoyed the use of the privileges throughout his or her active career, losing them only if found incompetent. Today, …
Life After Daubert V. Merrell Dow: Maine As A Case Law Laboratory For Evidence Rule 702 Without Frye, Leigh Stephens Mccarthy
Life After Daubert V. Merrell Dow: Maine As A Case Law Laboratory For Evidence Rule 702 Without Frye, Leigh Stephens Mccarthy
Maine Law Review
In reaching its recent decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Supreme Court grappled not with case law but with fundamental questions about the nature of science and its role in law. The court in Daubert addressed the problematic issue of admissibility of expert scientific testimony. In the end the Court rejected as an exclusionary rule the venerable standard set in 1923 by Frye v. United States. Frye held that scientific testimony was to be excluded unless it had gained “general acceptance” in its field. Daubert held that Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence …
Fisco V. Department Of Human Services: The Inequity Of Equitable Defenses In Child Support Arrearage Cases, Rebecca C. Raskin
Fisco V. Department Of Human Services: The Inequity Of Equitable Defenses In Child Support Arrearage Cases, Rebecca C. Raskin
Maine Law Review
On August 8, 1995, using a federal law targeting the most egregious deadbeat fathers, FBI agents arrested Jeffrey Nichols for failing to pay approximately $580,000 in child support. Although the law is fairly new, the problem of child support enforcement has troubled this country for decades. In the early 1970s, child support enforcement was so inadequate that the federal government spent $7.6 billion annually on welfare to provide for single parents. The government has tried to remedy the problem, but seventy-five percent of custodial mothers in this country continue either to lack child support orders or to receive less than …
The Sleepwalker's Tour Of Divorce Law, John C. Sheldon
The Sleepwalker's Tour Of Divorce Law, John C. Sheldon
Maine Law Review
It's amazing what you can learn about modern divorce law from Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler. Copernicus was the 16th century churchman who dared to suggest that the sun, not the earth, lies at the center of the solar system. Kepler was the early-17th century mathematician whose three laws of planetary motion provided the foundation for modern cosmology. Neither of these pioneers had a clue what he was doing. A study of recent procedures, decisions, and statutes in Maine divorce law suggests that nothing has changed since Copernicus. Koestler could have written the same book just by attending a divorce …
Basic Trial Advocacy, Michael W. Mullane
Basic Trial Advocacy, Michael W. Mullane
Maine Law Review
Mary Crates taught me to “begin as you mean to go on.” Peter Murray's book is a good place to begin for those embarking on a life of trial advocacy. For those of us whose beginnings are distant and often painful memories, it is an excellent reminder of where we meant to go. Trial advocacy is an infinitely complex task. This simple fact is both its joy and curse. Teaching trial advocacy is equally difficult. There is no “never” and no “always.” There is a host of commonly accepted maxims, many of which are contradictory on their face and all …
Long V. Long: Law Court Ruling Changes The Disposition Of Joint Real Property On Divorce, Marc J. Veilleux
Long V. Long: Law Court Ruling Changes The Disposition Of Joint Real Property On Divorce, Marc J. Veilleux
Maine Law Review
In Long v. Long the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, affirmed a district court divorce decree dividing the parties' residence of thirteen years as marital property, even though the majority of the funds used for its purchase were traceable to non-marital property the husband had acquired prior to the marriage. The governing statute instructed the district court to make an “equitable” disposition of all property acquired by the spouses during marriage, but required that it first “set apart to each spouse the spouse's [separate] property,” including property acquired during marriage by a spouse “in exchange for …
When You Should Have Known: Rethinking Constructive Knowledge In Tort Liability For Sexual Transmission Of Hiv, John A. Turcotte
When You Should Have Known: Rethinking Constructive Knowledge In Tort Liability For Sexual Transmission Of Hiv, John A. Turcotte
Maine Law Review
AIDS is a modern epidemic that has grabbed the forefront of this nation's attention like no other disease in the twentieth century. Despite vigorous medical research and experimentation, the disease remains incurable and ultimately fatal. Protecting the health of the citizens has always been a strong policy of the law. Tort liability for the spread of contagious diseases dates back to the early nineteenth century. Tort liability for sexual transmission of AIDS began to appear in the late 1980s, not long after the appearance of the disease. Based as it was on the tort actions arising from other transmittable diseases, …
The Maine Civil Rights Act: History, Enforcement, Application, And Analysis, J. Christopher Parr
The Maine Civil Rights Act: History, Enforcement, Application, And Analysis, J. Christopher Parr
Maine Law Review
Since the passage of the “Maine Civil Rights Act” (MCRA, Act) in 1989, the Maine Department of the Attorney General has made enforcement of that civil “hate crime” law one of its highest priorities. According to one statistic, “more than 125 people have been prosecuted in Maine's civil courts on hate crime charges since 1994,” and only two of those actions have been lost by the State. The Attorney General at the time of this writing, Andrew Ketterer, has stated that he takes the perpetration of hate crimes seriously, and that it has been important to him “that the message …
Scientific Evidence And Forensic Science Since Daubert: Maine Decides To Sit Out On The Dance, Thomas L. Bohan
Scientific Evidence And Forensic Science Since Daubert: Maine Decides To Sit Out On The Dance, Thomas L. Bohan
Maine Law Review
In 1993, the Supreme Court of the United States stated that with the federal adoption of statutory rules of evidence in 1975, the common law rule for determining admissibility of scientific testimony was superseded, and that thenceforth admissibility of scientific testimony was to be determined solely by Federal Rule of Evidence 702 (Rule 702). The Frye standard had been adopted in one form or another by most of the federal circuits and by many of the state courts during the 70 years preceding Daubert. Referred to as the “general acceptance” standard, the Frye standard--although adopted in a variety of forms--had …
Time To Reconsider Nullum Tempus Occurrit Regi - The Applicability Of Statutes Of Limitations Against The State Of Maine In Civil Actions, Sigmond D. Schutz
Time To Reconsider Nullum Tempus Occurrit Regi - The Applicability Of Statutes Of Limitations Against The State Of Maine In Civil Actions, Sigmond D. Schutz
Maine Law Review
Many states, including the State of Maine, take the position that they have, essentially, an infinite time within which to bring a civil action. The basis for the State's claim of immunity from statutes of limitations is the old English common law doctrine, “nullum tempus occurrit regi”-- literally, no time runs against the King--which purports to exempt the State from statutes of limitations of general applicability unless statutes expressly provide otherwise. There has not been a Maine Supreme Judicial Court (Law Court) opinion mentioning the nullum tempusdoctrine since 1955, but the doctrine continues to be actively asserted by the State …
Contemplating The Use Of Classified Or State Secret Information Obtained Ex Parte On The Merits In Civil Litigation: Bl(A)Ck Tea Society V. City Of Boston, Brian M. Tomney
Maine Law Review
In Bl(a)ck Tea Society v. City of Boston, the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, without dissent, a district court's ruling denying protesters at the 2004 Democratic National Convention a preliminary injunction designed to force the City of Boston to modify its designated demonstration zone (DZ) and remove some of the draconian security measures surrounding the zone. The injunction was denied by Judge Woodlock after he personally inspected the DZ and determined that, given “constraints of time, geography, and safety,” there were no viable alternatives—to site location or construction of the DZ itself—that could reasonably occur before the convention started. …
Protecting The Public Benefit: Crafting Precedent For Citizen Enforcement Of Conservation Easements, Sean P. Ociepka
Protecting The Public Benefit: Crafting Precedent For Citizen Enforcement Of Conservation Easements, Sean P. Ociepka
Maine Law Review
In fiscal year 2004, Wal-Mart added 139 new discount stores, supercenters, and “neighborhood markets” to its already significant chain of stores across the United States. Wal-Mart developers submit their proposals to governing town bodies all over the country with the promise that the $20 million construction of a 200,000 square foot store will create 500 new jobs for the local economy, will have a payroll of over $12 million, will increase the tax base of the area, and will provide convenient, affordable shopping for consumers. For these reasons, the big box stores are a hard offer for town planners to …
Rewriting Hockey's Unwritten Rules: Moore V. Bertuzzi, Patrick K. Thornton
Rewriting Hockey's Unwritten Rules: Moore V. Bertuzzi, Patrick K. Thornton
Maine Law Review
The word “enforcer” or “hockey goon” does not appear in the 2007–2008 National Hockey League (NHL) rulebook. However, every player and coach knows the meaning of those words. Hockey has always had its share of enforcers or “goons” that have protected star players. Steve Moore, former Harvard captain, and his parents have sued NHL tough-man Todd Bertuzzi, the Vancouver Canucks, and the partnership that owned the Canucks for an on-ice incident that occurred between Moore and Bertuzzi on March 8, 2004. Dedicated hockey fans have followed the lawsuit, but with the “incident” now over four years old many have forgotten …
The Unappreciated Importance, For Small Business Defendants, Of The Duty To Settle, Robert Heidt
The Unappreciated Importance, For Small Business Defendants, Of The Duty To Settle, Robert Heidt
Maine Law Review
This paper suggests how the duty to settle, which requires liability insurers to pay damages awarded against their insured in excess of the policy limits when the insurers reject a reasonable settlement offer within the limits, may have indirectly led certain of their insureds--small business recreational vendors like horse riding stables or some motels offering swimming pools with diving boards--to sanitize the recreational activities they offer. More generally, the duty to settle's effect on the lawsuits injured customers brought against small business recreational vendors may have led a wide variety of such vendors to sanitize activities the vendors previously offered …
The World Is Round: Why We Must Assure Equal Access To Civil Justice, Jon D. Levy
The World Is Round: Why We Must Assure Equal Access To Civil Justice, Jon D. Levy
Maine Law Review
In 1972, the astronauts of Apollo 17, NASA’s final manned-mission to the Moon, took a photograph of the entire hemisphere of Earth. The photograph shows the continents of Africa and Antarctica in hues of red and brown, surrounded by the vibrant blue oceans and topped by swirling white clouds. It has become an iconic image. Studying the Earth from afar, Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17’s commander, reported to the Houston command center with just a touch of irony: “We’re not the first to discover this, but we’d like to confirm, from the crew of Apollo 17, that the world is round.” …
What Can The Feds And The French Teach Us About Criminal Restitution In Maine?, Benjamin M. Birney
What Can The Feds And The French Teach Us About Criminal Restitution In Maine?, Benjamin M. Birney
Maine Law Review
On New Year’s Eve 1981, seventeen year old Kevin Tunell, returning home from a party at which he had consumed a large amount of champagne, struck and killed eighteen year old Susan Herzog. In 1982, Tunell pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to lecture to teens on the dangers of drunk driving for one year. Herzog’s family, outraged at what they perceived to be the leniency of the sentence, brought a civil action against Tunell, obtaining a $100,000 settlement from his insurance company. In addition, Tunell agreed to send one dollar to Herzog’s family every week for eighteen years. …
Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of "Sexually Violent Predator" Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith
Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of "Sexually Violent Predator" Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith
Faculty Publications
In its 1997 opinion, Kansas v. Hendricks, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that reflected a new model of civil commitment. The targets of this new commitment law were dubbed “Sexually Violent Predators” (SVPs), and the Court upheld indefinite detention of these individuals on the assumption that there is a psychiatrically distinct class of individuals who, unlike typical recidivists, have a mental condition that impairs their ability to refrain from violent sexual behavior. And, more specifically, the Court assumed that the justice system could reliably identify the true “predators,” those for whom this unusual and extraordinary deprivation of liberty …
The Legal Architecture Of Nation-Building: An Introduction, Charles H. Norchi
The Legal Architecture Of Nation-Building: An Introduction, Charles H. Norchi
Faculty Publications
The fundamental question here is how to bring a population from a condition of hopelessness to one of self-governance, sustainable growth, and viable participation in the world community. The aim of this Symposium is to stimulate thinking about those questions by exploring whether there is a discernible legal architecture of nation-building.