Law Commons^™

Tort Liability For Physical Harm To Police Arising From Protest: Common-Law Principles For A Politicized World, Ellen M. Bublick, Jane R. Bambauer

UF Law Faculty Publications

When police officers bring tort suits for physical harms suffered during protest, courts must navigate two critically important sets of values—on the one hand, protesters’ rights to free speech and assembly, and on the other, the value of officers’ lives, health, and rights of redress. This year courts, including the United States Supreme Court, must decide who, if anyone, can be held accountable for severe physical harms suffered by police called upon to respond to protest. Two highly visible cases well illustrate the trend. In one, United States Capitol Police officers were injured on January 6, 2021, during organized attempts …

Content Moderation And The Least Cost Avoider, Paul Rosenzweig

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Police Chases And Pit Maneuvers: Examining The Role Of Officer Conduct In Pursuit-Related Felony Murder Convictions, Margaret L. R. Dubose

Georgia State University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has described a police officer's decision to terminate a high-speed car chase by making physical contact with the fleeing vehicle as a "choice between two evils." Indeed, while many speed-related deaths occur on Georgia's roadways without the involvement of law enforcement, deaths also transpire when officers choose to make such contact through Precision Intervention Technique (PIT) maneuvers.

In 2015, a Georgia jury found a driver guilty of committing felony murder—a conviction which carries with it a life sentence. The victim, a passenger in the driver's speeding car, died after a law enforcement officer performed a …

Implementation Of Closing And Disbursement Of The International Travel Insurance Policy In Relation With Covid-19 Disease, Kurnia Togar Pandapotan Tanjung, Athaya Yumna, Janthi Dharma Shanty

Journal of Indonesian Tourism and Policy Studies

In life, one is always faced with uncertain risks. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, a person traveling abroad for business or tourism purposes has the risk of being infected with COVID-19. One of the efforts that one can make to minimize the risk of being infected with the COVID-19 is to transfer the risk to the Insurer by registering with an Insurance Company to get a Travel Insurance. The COVID-19 International Travel Insurance provides a guarantee of protection to someone traveling internationally from the risk of being infected with the COVID-19 so that the trip becomes comfortable, safe, …

Forever Chemicals Are Infiltrating America, And The Nation Is Letting Impoverished And Marginalized Communities Take The Brunt Of The Contamination, Elizabeth Troutman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Eavesdropping: The Forgotten Public Nuisance In The Age Of Alexa, Julia Keller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Always-listening devices have sparked new concerns about privacy while evading regulation, but a potential solution has existed for hundreds of years: public nuisance.

Public nuisance has been stretched to serve as a basis of liability for some of the most prominent cases of modern mass-tort litigation, such as suits against opioid and tobacco manufacturers for creating products that endanger public health. While targeting conduct that arguably interferes with a right common to the public, this use of public nuisance extends far beyond the original understanding of the doctrine. Public nuisance has not been applied, however, to another prominent contemporary issue: …

Risky Speech Systems: Tort Liability For Ai-Generated Illegal Speech, Margot E. Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

Locating Liability For Medical Ai, W. Nicholson Price Ii, I. Glenn Cohen

Articles

When medical AI systems fail, who should be responsible, and how? We argue that various features of medical AI complicate the application of existing tort doctrines and render them ineffective at creating incentives for the safe and effective use of medical AI. In addition to complexity and opacity, the problem of contextual bias, where medical AI systems vary substantially in performance from place to place, hampers traditional doctrines. We suggest instead the application of enterprise liability to hospitals—making them broadly liable for negligent injuries occurring within the hospital system—with an important caveat: hospitals must have access to the information needed …

Shields Up For Software, Derek E. Bambauer, Melanie J. Teplinsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article contends that the National Cybersecurity Strategy's software liability regime should incorporate two safe harbors. The first would shield software creators and vendors from liability for decisions related to design, implementation, and maintenance, as long as those choices follow enumerated best practices. The second—the “inverse safe harbor”—would have the opposite effect: coders and distributors who engaged in defined worst practices would automatically become liable. This Article explains the design, components, and justifications for these twin safe harbors. The software safe harbors are key parts of the overall design of the new liability regime and work in tandem with the …

Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin David Pyle

Faculty Scholarship

This paper tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge—reducing the impact of criminal justice records on job applicants’ chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination—by looking at how another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers’ decision-making. It uses theoretical and empirical methods to study the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that, in practice, …

Where's The Insurance In Mass Tort Litigation?, Tom Baker

Articles

This article reports and explains four key findings about the difference between the role of insurance in mass tort litigation and the role of insurance in ordinary tort and corporate governance litigation as reported in earlier research: (1) outside of the insolvency context, mass tort plaintiff lawyers do not build their litigation and settlement strategy around defendants’ liability insurance; (2) mass tort defendants typically retain control over their defense, even when they recover under insurance policies that assign the insurer control over their defense; (3) mass tort defendants typically use their own funds to settle claims, obtaining indemnification from their …

In Pursuit Of A Modern Standard: The Constitutional Proportions Of Collateral Harm From Pursuits And Police High-Speed Driving, Julian Gilbert

Cleveland State Law Review

Police chases and high-speed driving are common practices that pose a substantial amount of harm and are often unjustified. The benefits of such chases are questionable, and rapid police action at all costs is often unnecessary. When bystanders are injured as a result of police high-speed driving, there are few avenues to have their rights vindicated, and federal court cases require plaintiffs to meet an almost impossible burden. However, under the United States Supreme Court case of County of Sacramento v. Lewis, a plaintiff can put forth evidence that their substantive due process right to life under the Fourteenth …

Fixed Payment Schedules Do Not Foreclose Liability Under The False Claims Act, Glen Mcclain

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Indiana Harbor Is The Worst Torts Decision In American History, Carl T. Bogus

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Platform Accountability: Gonzalez And Reform, Eric Schnapper

Presentations

Section 230(c)(1) was adopted for the purpose of distinguishing between conduct of third parties and conduct of internet companies themselves. Its familiar language provides that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The last four words are central to the limitation on the defense created by the statute; it is only regarding information created by “another” that the defense may be available. Section 230(e)(3) makes clear that even a partial role played by an internet company in the creation of harmful …

Who Pays First?: Medicaid Third-Party Liability In Florida And Virginia’S Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Programs, Alexandra M. Robbins

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

In response to an impending obstetrician shortage and medical malpractice crisis, the states of Florida and Virginia adopted no-fault birth-related neurological injury compensation programs in the 1980s. Both of these programs provide lifetime coverage for eligible children with serious birth-related neurological injuries; however, both programs treated themselves as the payer of last resort and required families to submit claims to Medicaid first based on an inaccurate interpretation of Medicaid third party-liability (“TPL”) laws and the program-enabling statutes. Both programs’ policies treating themselves as the payer of last resort not only violated Federal and State Medicaid laws, they caused harm to …

Financial Security Mechanisms To Cover Biodiversity Damage Resulting From The Use Of Genetically Modified Organisms, Michael Faure, Minzhen Jiang

Emory International Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Director Liability To Officer Liability To Esg Caremark Claims: A Natural Evolution?, Gareth Mchugh

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

With the McDonald’s decision, officers and directors could face Caremark liability for the first time, and this decision could also lead to an influx of ESG-based Caremark claims in Delaware Courts. This Comment explains that, while ESG Caremark claims would force corporations to adopt ESG oversight systems to avoid liability, the very political, social, and legal environment that created a growing call for ESG Caremark claims presents a beneficial opportunity for corporations to appeal to consumers and investors by proactively adopting ESG oversight systems. Corporations are at a nexus where they can either willingly adopt ESG oversight systems and reap …

Vicarious Liability For Ai, Mihailis E. Diamantis

Indiana Law Journal

When an algorithm harms someone—say by discriminating against her, exposing her personal data, or buying her stock using inside information—who should pay? If that harm is criminal, who deserves punishment? In ordinary cases, when A harms B, the first step in the liability analysis turns on what sort of thing A is. If A is a natural phenomenon, like a typhoon or mudslide, B pays, and no one is punished. If A is a person, then A might be liable for damages and sanction. The trouble with algorithms is that neither paradigm fits. Algorithms are trainable artifacts with “off” switches, …

The Texas Two-Step: How Corporate Debtors Manipulate Chapter 11 Reorganizations To Dance Around Mass Tort Liability, Laura S. Rossi

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

The purpose of the bankruptcy system is to grant a “fresh start” to the honest but unfortunate debtor, while the purpose of the tort system is to make injured parties “whole” again. As a result, these systems inevitably clash when a business debtor files for bankruptcy while there are pending tort claims against it. The tension between these systems has reached a whole new level following the emergence of a new strategy deemed the “Texas Two-Step.”

A Texas statute leaves open a loophole for otherwise solvent companies to dodge mass tort liabilities and protect their assets, leaving injured plaintiffs with …

Parent Misconduct On The Sidelines: Who Is Liable?, Abigail C. Barnett

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Event-Driven Suits And The Rethinking Of Securities Litigation, Merritt B. Fox, Joshua Mitts

Faculty Scholarship

Event-driven securities suits-ones that arise after an issuer has experienced some kind of disaster-have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. These suits are based on the fraud-on-the-market doctrine, a doctrine that ultimately gives rise to the bulk of the damages paid out in settlements and judgments pursuant to private litigation under the U.S. securities laws. The theory behind fraud-on-the-market cases is that when an issuer's share price has been inflated by a Rule-10b-5-violating misstatement, investors who purchased shares at the inflated price have suffered a compensable injury if they still hold the shares after the inflation is gone. Although these …

Insurance And Enterprise: Cyber Insurance For Ransomware, Tom Baker, Anja Shortland

All Faculty Scholarship

Selling insurance gives insurers an incentive to manage insured risks. The “insurance as governance” literature demonstrates that insurers often make insurance conditional on ex ante risk reduction or mitigation. But insurance governs in support of enterprise, not security for its own sake. Tight underwriting inhibits enterprise – not only for insured businesses but also the business of insurance. This paper highlights ex post loss reduction as a form of insurance-based governance. Drawing on interviews with industry insiders, we explore how insurers addressed the evolving problems of moral hazard, uncertainty, and correlated losses since the 1990s. We find that cyber insurance …

Let It Burn: A Case Study On The Risk Management Practices Of Burning Man Project, Ethan S. De La Torre

Experience Industry Management

Risk management can be defined as a decision-making process of planning, identifying, analyzing, developing a response for, and controlling potential risks with the goal of minimizing the negative impacts of those risks. Risk management is an essential practice for all events, especially large-scale, live entertainment events. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk management practices for Burning Man. The instrument utilized in this study was a best practices guide developed by the researcher. Data were collected prior to, during, and following Burning Man 2022: Waking Dreams. Sources of data include printed material and online sources published by …

Three Kinds Of Fault: Understanding The Purpose And Function Of Causation In Tort Law, Marin R. Scordato

University of Miami Law Review

Causation is a concept of enormous importance in the law. In just the last two years, the United States Supreme Court has explicitly considered its importance and meaning on at least three occasions, in areas of the law as diverse as specific personal jurisdiction, Title IX, and Section 1981. It has also been the subject of sustained scholarly examination and debate.

In no area of the law is causation as foundational and omni- present as in tort law, and in no sphere within tort law is it more prevalent than in its dominant cause of action, negligence. Unsurprisingly then, the …

Characterizing Legal Implications For The Use Of Transboundary Aquifers, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Groundwater resources that traverse political boundaries are becoming increasingly important sources of freshwater in international and intranational arenas worldwide. This is a direct extension of the growing need for new sources of freshwater, as well as the impact that excessive extraction, pollution, climate change, and other anthropogenic activities have had on surface waters. It is also a function of the growing realization that groundwater respects no political boundaries, and that aquifers traverse jurisdictional lines at all levels of political geography.

Due to this growing awareness, questions pertaining to responsibility and liability are now being raised in relation to the use, …

Giving Heroes Their Shields: Providing More Immunity To The Healthcare Industry During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gabriella Levine

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

The year is 2022. We are experiencing a global pandemic and economic uncertainty. And while traffic might have improved, as many work remotely and socially distance, everything else is unknown as people are face-to-face with death. The future has never looked bleaker.

As of September 12, 2022, there were 1,044,461 Coronavirus (“COVID-19”) related deaths and 94,973,074 reported COVID-19 cases in the United States (“U.S.”). The effects of COVID-19 impacted people who contracted the disease, family members who lost someone, and people at risk who have been in isolation for over one year.

Another group that has been heavily affected …

Design Professional Liability For Construction Worksite Accidents - How Arkansas Led The Way To A National Consensus, Marc M. Schneier

Arkansas Law Review

Three major developments underlie the law of architect or engineer (a/e) liability to construction workers, beginning in the second half of the twentieth century: (1) a change from a no-duty regime to a duty of care under a foreseeability test, (2) reactions to that expanded liability by changes to standard form documents by industry associations (in particular the American Institute of Architects (AIA)), (3) currently culminating in a broad national consensus. The Arkansas Supreme Court was instrumental in framing the issues of this jurisprudence early in its development and later contributed to its continued evolution.

Dual Personas: Treating An Employer As A Third Party Under The Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, Brent A. Bauer

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Immunization And Indemnification: Rethinking The Us Approach To Liability Protections For Vaccine Manufacturers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Samantha Topper Berns

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This note analyzes the legal mechanisms in the United States that provide compensation for vaccine injuries sustained as a result of inoculation against pandemic viruses when a public health emergency has been declared. While the United States has an every-day compensation scheme that deters litigation by providing just compensation yet upholds the right of injured parties to seek damages in court, it has a special compensation scheme applicable to vaccines developed to address public health emergencies that bars litigation by effectively providing vaccine manufactures with complete indemnification and severely restricts the ability of injured parties to receive compensation. Meanwhile, in …