Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Liability (199)
- Negligence (190)
- Injuries (111)
- Damages (91)
- Compensation (47)
-
- Law reform (45)
- Fraud (36)
- Automobile accident (35)
- Products liability (32)
- Injury (30)
- United States Supreme Court (30)
- Michigan (28)
- Risk (27)
- Contributory negligence (26)
- Strict liability (26)
- Automobile accidents (25)
- Causes of action (24)
- New York (24)
- Recovery (21)
- Breach of contract (20)
- Death (20)
- Manufacturers (20)
- Due care (19)
- Remedies (19)
- Wisconsin (19)
- Defamation (18)
- Deterrence (18)
- Fault (18)
- Causation (17)
- Public policy (17)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Michigan Law Review (822)
- Articles (97)
- University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (70)
- Michigan Law Review First Impressions (13)
- Other Publications (11)
-
- Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review (7)
- Reviews (7)
- Books (6)
- Book Chapters (5)
- Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009 (5)
- Law & Economics Working Papers (4)
- Michigan Legal Studies Series (4)
- Michigan Journal of International Law (3)
- Michigan Technology Law Review (3)
- Journal of Law and Mobility (2)
- Michigan Law Review Online (2)
- Appellate Briefs (1)
- Law Librarian Scholarship (1)
- Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review (1)
- Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law (1)
- Michigan Journal of Gender & Law (1)
- Michigan Journal of Race and Law (1)
- University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat (1)
- Publication Type
- File Type
Articles 1 - 30 of 1068
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Mismatched Goals Of Bankruptcy And Mass Tort Litigation, Maureen Carroll
The Mismatched Goals Of Bankruptcy And Mass Tort Litigation, Maureen Carroll
Reviews
By the end of this Term, SCOTUS must decide what to do about the mammoth Purdue Pharma bankruptcy settlement. If allowed to go forward, the $10 billion deal will not only resolve claims against the company, it will shield the Sackler family—the company’s former owners—from any further liability for their role in the opioid crisis. The deal has generated a great deal of discussion, much of it focused on the legality and wisdom of that third-party release. The authors of Against Bankruptcy take a broader view, asking a set of critical questions about the proper role of bankruptcy in the …
A Revisionist History Of Products Liability, Alexandra D. Lahav
A Revisionist History Of Products Liability, Alexandra D. Lahav
Michigan Law Review
Increasingly courts, including the Supreme Court, rely on ossified versions of the common law to decide cases. This Article demonstrates the risks of this use of the common law. The main contribution of the Article is to demonstrate that the traditional narrative about early products law—that manufacturers were not liable for injuries caused by their products because the doctrine of privity granted producers immunity from suit by the ultimate consumers of their goods—is incorrect. Instead, the doctrinal rule was negligence liability for producers of injurious goods across the United States in the nineteenth century. Courts routinely ignored or rejected privity …
Telegraph Torts: The Lost Lineage Of The Public Service Corporation, Evelyn Atkinson
Telegraph Torts: The Lost Lineage Of The Public Service Corporation, Evelyn Atkinson
Michigan Law Review
At the turn of the twentieth century, state courts were roiled by claims against telegraph corporations for mental anguish resulting from the failure to deliver telegrams involving the death or injury of a family member. Although these “telegraph cases” at first may seem a bizarre outlier, they in fact reveal an important and understudied moment of transformation in the nature of the relationship between the corporation and the public: the role of affective relations in the development of the category of the public utility corporation. Even as powerful corporations were recast as private, rights-bearing, profit-making market actors in constitutional law, …
Wrongs To Us, Steven Schaus
Wrongs To Us, Steven Schaus
Michigan Law Review
A huge number of tort suits in the United States are captioned Plaintiff & Spouse v. Defendant. Why? The answer is at once completely obvious and deeply puzzling. The plaintiff’s spouse is part of the case because, in almost every U.S. state, she has a claim against the defendant too—not for battery or negligence, as her spouse might, but for the loss of her spouse’s “consortium.” And yet, it’s not at all clear why a spouse should have a tort claim of this kind. A plaintiff who sues in tort, Judge Cardozo once explained, must always identify “ ‘a …
Texas Two-Stepping Out Of Bankruptcy, Michael A. Francus
Texas Two-Stepping Out Of Bankruptcy, Michael A. Francus
Michigan Law Review Online
Johnson & Johnson has a problem. For decades, it sold talc baby powder, a product that made Johnson & Johnson a household name and earned the business billions. But as those babies grew up, they started getting cancer. And then they began suing. Last June, twenty-two plaintiffs cemented a $2.12 billion judgment against Johnson & Johnson for cancer caused by its baby powder. Another 38,000 cases (and counting) remain in progress, each with the potential for a similar verdict.
To handle these mass tort liabilities, Johnson & Johnson has followed the lead of many businesses and turned to the bankruptcy …
Hard Truths: Libel By Implication Doctrine And The Need For A Uniform Standard, Carly Ryan
Hard Truths: Libel By Implication Doctrine And The Need For A Uniform Standard, Carly Ryan
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Since the inception of the tort of libel, claims against the media have created a tension between the First Amendment’s commitment to a free press and the desire to prevent reputational harm to individuals. Further complicating the issue are cases in which plaintiffs allege that literally true statements are defamatory based on implications created through juxtapositions or omissions of facts. This is known as libel by implication, a tort currently governed by states through a patchwork of varying standards and interpretations. Not only does the lack of uniformity leave journalists without due notice of the law in the jurisdictions they …
The Impact Of Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans On Prenatal Tort Claims, Aviva K. Diamond
The Impact Of Post-Dobbs Abortion Bans On Prenatal Tort Claims, Aviva K. Diamond
Michigan Law Review
In June 2022, the Supreme Court revoked Americans’ fundamental right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. However, the Court said nothing about how its decision would impact tort claims related to reproductive care. Many states have since adopted near-total or early-gestational- age abortion bans, which has not only diminished access to reproductive care, but has also incidentally impaired the ability of plaintiffs to bring long-recognized prenatal tort claims. Prenatal tort claims—wrongful pregnancy, birth, and life—allow victims to recover when a medical professional negligently performs reproductive or prenatal care. This Note identifies the impact that post-Dobbs …
Liability For Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Medicine, W. Nicholson Price, Sara Gerke, I. Glenn Cohen
Liability For Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Medicine, W. Nicholson Price, Sara Gerke, I. Glenn Cohen
Law & Economics Working Papers
While artificial intelligence has substantial potential to improve medical practice, errors will certainly occur, sometimes resulting in injury. Who will be liable? Questions of liability for AI-related injury raise not only immediate concerns for potentially liable parties, but also broader systemic questions about how AI will be developed and adopted. The landscape of liability is complex, involving health-care providers and institutions and the developers of AI systems. In this chapter, we consider these three principal loci of liability: individual health-care providers, focused on physicians; institutions, focused on hospitals; and developers.
Foreword: From Personal Life To Private Law: The Jurisprudence Of John Gardner, Scott Hershovitz
Foreword: From Personal Life To Private Law: The Jurisprudence Of John Gardner, Scott Hershovitz
Other Publications
John Gardner was a great philosopher. He was appointed as the Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford when he was still quite junior in the profession. It was a big job. Ronald Dworkin held the post before Gardner, and H.L.A. Hart before him. Gardner delivered on his promise. He had wide-ranging interests. He wrote about jurisprudence, criminal law, and tort law. His pushed those fields forward—and others too. Gardner’s scholarship was incisive, creative, rigorous, generous, and witty. He had a knack for illuminating law and life too. In recent years, Gardner published two books that tackled tort law: From Personal Life …
Brief For Plaintiff-Appellee, Carroll V. Trump, No. 20-3977 (2nd Cir. Apr. 16, 2021), Leah Litman, Roberta A. Kaplan, Joshua A. Matz, Raymond P. Tolentino
Brief For Plaintiff-Appellee, Carroll V. Trump, No. 20-3977 (2nd Cir. Apr. 16, 2021), Leah Litman, Roberta A. Kaplan, Joshua A. Matz, Raymond P. Tolentino
Appellate Briefs
Introduction
In June 2019, E. Jean Carroll revealed that former President Donald J. Trump had sexually assaulted her decades earlier. Trump denied it, saying he did not know who Carroll was and had never met her. But he did not stop there. He launched a series of vicious, personal attacks. He implied that she was too ugly to rape; that she had falsely accused other men of sexual assault; and that she had invented her story for money, or to sell books, or to advance a political plot. None of this was true. Trump knew that he had assaulted Carroll. …
How Can I Tell If My Algorithm Was Reasonable?, Karni A. Chagal-Feferkorn
How Can I Tell If My Algorithm Was Reasonable?, Karni A. Chagal-Feferkorn
Michigan Technology Law Review
Self-learning algorithms are gradually dominating more and more aspects of our lives. They do so by performing tasks and reaching decisions that were once reserved exclusively for human beings. And not only that—in certain contexts, their decision-making performance is shown to be superior to that of humans. However, as superior as they may be, self-learning algorithms (also referred to as artificial intelligence (AI) systems, “smart robots,” or “autonomous machines”) can still cause damage.
When determining the liability of a human tortfeasor causing damage, the applicable legal framework is generally that of negligence. To be found negligent, the tortfeasor must have …
Impostor Scams, David Adam Friedman
Impostor Scams, David Adam Friedman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Impostor scams have recently become the most common type of consumer scam in America, surpassing identity theft. It has never been easier and more profitable to be an impostor scammer. Though the core of these scams dates back centuries, these fraudsters consistently find novel ways to manipulate human motives and emotions. Nonetheless, the public should not give up hope. Policymakers and private actors can slow down this scourge if they focus on the key chokepoints that impostor scammers rely upon to achieve their ends. This Article provides a roadmap for a solution to impostor scams, offering specific suggestions for mitigating …
The Ragged Edge Of Rugged Individualism: Wage Theft And The Personalization Of Social Harm, Matthew Fritz-Mauer
The Ragged Edge Of Rugged Individualism: Wage Theft And The Personalization Of Social Harm, Matthew Fritz-Mauer
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Every year, millions of low-wage workers suffer wage theft when their employers refuse to pay them what they have earned. Wage theft is both prevalent and highly impactful. It costs individuals thousands each year in unpaid earnings, siphons tens of billions of dollars from low-income communities, depletes the government of necessary resources, distorts the competitive labor market, and causes significant personal harm to its victims. In recent years, states and cities have passed new laws to attack the problem. These legal changes are important. They are also, broadly speaking, failing the people they are supposed to protect.
This Article fills …
Tort Law And Civil Recourse, Mark A. Geistfeld
Tort Law And Civil Recourse, Mark A. Geistfeld
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Recognizing Wrongs. by John C.P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky.
From Automation To Autonomy: Legal And Ethical Responsibility Gaps In Artificial Intelligence Innovation, David Nersessian, Ruben Mancha
From Automation To Autonomy: Legal And Ethical Responsibility Gaps In Artificial Intelligence Innovation, David Nersessian, Ruben Mancha
Michigan Technology Law Review
The increasing prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in daily life and the evolving capacity of these systems to process data and act without human input raise important legal and ethical concerns. This article identifies three primary AI actors in the value chain (innovators, providers, and users) and three primary types of AI (automation, augmentation, and autonomy). It then considers responsibility in AI innovation from two perspectives: (i) strict liability claims arising out of the development, commercialization, and use of products with built-in AI capabilities (designated herein as “AI artifacts”); and (ii) an original research study on the ethical practices …
Sovereign Immunity And Interstate Government Tort, Louise Weinberg
Sovereign Immunity And Interstate Government Tort, Louise Weinberg
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This paper argues that the Supreme Court made a serious mistake last term, when, in a case of interstate government tort, it tore up useful options that should be available to each state for the rare cases in which they would be of service. In seeking to insulate a state from liability when its employee intrudes on a sister state’s territory and causes injury there, the Court stripped every state of power, in cases of interstate government tort, to try injuries occurring on its own territory to its own residents—an unprecedented disregard of a state’s acknowledged traditional interests. Indeed, the …
When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance, Hilary Silvia, Nanci K. Carr
When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance, Hilary Silvia, Nanci K. Carr
Michigan Technology Law Review
If a virtual-world-game character is cast upon real-world property without the consent of the landowner, inducing or encouraging players to trespass, is the virtual-world creator liable for damages? The United States Supreme Court has recognized that digital technology presents novel issues, the resolution of which must anticipate its further rapid development. It is beyond dispute that protective legislation will be unable to keep up with rapidly evolving technology. The burden of anticipating and addressing issues presented by emerging technologies will ultimately fall upon the businesses responsible for generating them. This duty was most notably adopted by the creators of Pokémon …
Calculating Compensation Sums For Private Law Wrongs: Underlying Imprecisions, Necessary Questions, And Toward A Plausible Account Of Damages For Lost Years Of Life, Michael Pressman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The ubiquitous corrective-justice goals of “making a party whole” or “returning a party to the position she was in” are typically understood in monetary terms, and in this context, it is fairly clear what these terms mean. If, as this Article argues, these corrective-justice goals should instead be understood in terms of something that has intrinsic value, such as happiness, various imprecisions come to the fore. This Article identifies and explores these imprecisions and, in so doing, articulates a novel framework that can be used for understanding and systematizing our approach to private law remedies. This is the Article’s first …
The Ncaa's Special Relationship With Student-Athletes As A Theory Of Liability For Concussion-Related Injuries, Tezira Abe
Michigan Law Review
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the primary governing body of college athletics. Although the NCAA proclaims to protect student-athletes, an examination of its practices suggests that the organization has a troubling history of ignoring the harmful effects of concussions. Over one hundred years after the NCAA was established, and seventy years after the NCAA itself knew of the potential effects of concussions, the organization has done little to reduce the occurrence of concussions or to alleviate the potential effects that stem from repeated hits to the head. This Note argues for recognizing a special relationship between the NCAA …
Hernandez, Bivens, And The Supreme Court’S Expanding Theory Of Judicial Abdication, William J. Aceves
Hernandez, Bivens, And The Supreme Court’S Expanding Theory Of Judicial Abdication, William J. Aceves
Michigan Law Review Online
This Essay examines the Hernandez decision and critiques the Court’s expanding theory of judicial abdication, an approach with profound implications for civil rights and the future of the judiciary. While Hernandezinvolved a cross-border shooting, the Court’s reasoning extends to all facets of civil litigation. Accordingly, this Essay proposes a new theory of judicial engagement that would empower federal courts to grant relief for constitutional claims against federal officials. It is a theory founded in extant constitutional jurisprudence that the Court has used for over a century to apply the Bill of Rights to state and local governments—an approach that …
Potential Liability For Physicians Using Artificial Intelligence, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Sara Gerke, I Glenn Cohen
Potential Liability For Physicians Using Artificial Intelligence, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Sara Gerke, I Glenn Cohen
Articles
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly making inroads into medical practice, especially in forms that rely on machine learning, with a mix of hope and hype. Multiple AI-based products have now been approved or cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and health systems and hospitals are increasingly deploying AI-based systems. For example, medical AI can support clinical decisions, such as recommending drugs or dosages or interpreting radiological images.2 One key difference from most traditional clinical decision support software is that some medical AI may communicate results or recommendations to the care team without being able to communicate the …
Should Automakers Be Responsible For Accidents?, Kyle D. Logue
Should Automakers Be Responsible For Accidents?, Kyle D. Logue
Articles
Motor vehicles are among the most dangerous products sold anywhere. Automobiles pose a larger risk of accidental death than any other product, except perhaps opioids. Annual autocrash deaths in the United States have not been below 30,000 since the 1940s, reaching a recent peak of roughly 40,000 in 2016. And the social cost of auto crashes goes beyond deaths. Auto-accident victims who survive often incur extraordinary medical expenses. Those crash victims whose injuries render them unable to work experience lost income. Auto accidents also cause nontrivial amounts of property damage—mostly to the automobiles themselves, but also to highways, bridges, or …
Tort Justice Reform, Paul David Stern
Tort Justice Reform, Paul David Stern
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article calls for a comprehensive reform of public tort law with respect to law enforcement conduct. It articulates an effective and equitable remedial regime that reconciles the aspirational goals of public tort law with the practical realities of devising payment and disciplinary procedures that are responsive to tort settlements and judgments. This proposed statutory scheme seeks to deter law enforcement misconduct without disincentivizing prudent officers from performing their duties or overburdening them with extensive litigation. Rather than lamenting the dissolution of Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics or the insurmountability of qualified immunity, reform …
21st Century Cures Act: The Problem With Preemption In Light Of Deregulation, Megan C. Andersen
21st Century Cures Act: The Problem With Preemption In Light Of Deregulation, Megan C. Andersen
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The 21st Century Cures Act introduced innovative changes to the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory processes. In an effort to address the slow, costly, and burdensome approval process for high-risk devices, the Cures Act modernized clinical trial data by allowing reviewers to determine whether devices merit expedited review and to consider post-market surveillance data in the premarket approval process. These changes will get life-saving devices to the people who need them faster than ever before. But the tradeoff is a greater risk of injury to the patient. The 2008 Supreme Court decision Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., held that any …
Policing Corporate Conduct Toward Minority Communities: An Insurance Law Perspective On The Use Of Race In Calculating Tort Damages, Dhruti J. Patel
Policing Corporate Conduct Toward Minority Communities: An Insurance Law Perspective On The Use Of Race In Calculating Tort Damages, Dhruti J. Patel
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Courts commonly use U.S. Department of Labor actuarial tables, which explicitly take into account the race of the tort victim, to determine average national wage, work-life expectancy, and life expectancy. This practice has led to wide discrepancies between average damage awards for minority plaintiffs compared to white plaintiffs even if both plaintiffs are similarly situated. While recent legal scholarship criticizes the use of race-based tables and addresses the Equal Protection and incentive concerns such tables present, few courts have deviated from the explicit use of race in determining tort damages.
Though the use of demographic features, such as race, to …
A Post-Spokeo Taxonomy Of Intangible Harms, Jackson Erpenbach
A Post-Spokeo Taxonomy Of Intangible Harms, Jackson Erpenbach
Michigan Law Review
Article III standing is a central requirement in federal litigation. The Supreme Court’s Spokeo decision marked a significant development in the doctrine, dividing the concrete injury-in-fact requirement into two subsets: tangible and intangible harms. While tangible harms are easily cognizable, plaintiffs alleging intangible harms can face a perilous path to court. This raises particular concern for the system of federal consumer protection laws where enforcement relies on consumers vindicating their own rights by filing suit when companies violate federal law. These plaintiffs must often allege intangible harms arising out of their statutorily guaranteed rights. This Note demonstrates that Spokeo’s …
The Deterrence Case For Comprehensive Automaker Enterprise Liability, Kyle D. Logue
The Deterrence Case For Comprehensive Automaker Enterprise Liability, Kyle D. Logue
Journal of Law and Mobility
This Article lays out the potential (at this point purely theoretical) deterrence benefits of replacing our current auto tort regime (including auto products liability law, driver-based negligence claims, and auto no-fault regimes) with a single, comprehensive automaker enterprise liability system. This new regime would apply not only to Level 5 vehicles, but to all automobiles made and sold to be driven on public roads. Because such a system would make automakers unconditionally responsible for the economic losses resulting from any crashes of their vehicles, it would in effect make automakers into auto insurers as well, although such a change will …
Let’S Be Reasonable: The Consumer Expectations Test Is Simply Not Viable To Determine Design Defect For Complex Autonomous Vehicle Technology, Emily Frascaroli, John Isaac Southerland, Elizabeth Davis, Woods Parker
Let’S Be Reasonable: The Consumer Expectations Test Is Simply Not Viable To Determine Design Defect For Complex Autonomous Vehicle Technology, Emily Frascaroli, John Isaac Southerland, Elizabeth Davis, Woods Parker
Journal of Law and Mobility
Although highly automated vehicles (“HAVs”) have potential to reduce deaths and injuries from traffic crashes, product liability litigation for design defects in vehicles incorporating autonomous technology is inevitable. During the early stages of implementation, courts and juries will be forced to grapple with the application of traditional product liability principles to a never before experienced category of highly technical products. Recent decisions limiting the use of the consumer expectations test in cases involving complex products prompted the authors to examine more closely the history behind and the future viability of the consumer expectations test in HAV litigation.
Qualified Immunity And Constitutional Structure, Katherine Mims Crocker
Qualified Immunity And Constitutional Structure, Katherine Mims Crocker
Michigan Law Review
A range of scholars has subjected qualified immunity to a wave of criticism— and for good reasons. But the Supreme Court continues to apply the doctrine in ever more aggressive ways. By advancing two claims, this Article seeks to make some sense of this conflict and to suggest some thoughts toward a resolution.
First, while the Court has offered and scholars have rejected several rationales for the doctrine, layering in an account grounded in structural constitutional concerns provides a historically richer and analytically thicker understanding of the current qualified-immunity regime. For suits against federal officials, qualified immunity acts as a …
Gossip And Gore: A Ghoulish Journey Into A Philosophical Thicket, Sean Hannon Williams
Gossip And Gore: A Ghoulish Journey Into A Philosophical Thicket, Sean Hannon Williams
Michigan Law Review
A review of Don Herzog, Defaming the Dead.