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The Absence Of Legal Ethics In The Ali's Principles Of Aggregate Litigation: A Missed Opportunity - And More, Nancy J. Moore Feb 2011

The Absence Of Legal Ethics In The Ali's Principles Of Aggregate Litigation: A Missed Opportunity - And More, Nancy J. Moore

Faculty Scholarship

There is little discussion of legal ethics in the American Law Institute’s recently adopted Principles of Aggregate Litigation, either in the black-letter rules or the comments. The primary exception is that the Principles devote several sections to the so-called aggregate settlement rule (Rule 1.8(g) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct), although the purpose of these sections appears to be a proposed modification of that rule to permit claimants to agree in advance to be bound by majority approval of a particular settlement. The purpose of this essay is not to discuss the controversial aggregate settlement proposal (which the …


Litigating Together: Social, Moral, And Legal Obligations, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch Jan 2011

Litigating Together: Social, Moral, And Legal Obligations, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

In a post-Class Action Fairness Act world, the modern mass-tort class action is disappearing. Indeed, multi-district litigation and private aggregation through contracts with plaintiffs’ law firms are the new mass-tort frontier. But something’s amiss with this “nonclass aggregation.” These new procedures involve a fundamentally different dynamic than class actions: plaintiffs have names, faces, and something deeply personal at stake. Their claims are independently economically viable, which gives them autonomy expectations about being able to control the course of their litigation. Yet, they participate in a familiar, collective effort to establish the defendant’s liability. They litigate from both a personal and …