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Full-Text Articles in Law
Where Equity Meets Expertise: Re-Thinking Appellate Review In Complex Litigation, Michael J. Hays
Where Equity Meets Expertise: Re-Thinking Appellate Review In Complex Litigation, Michael J. Hays
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The field of complex litigation continues to grow as both an academic study and a popular phenomenon. One cannot escape news accounts of major class action litigation, and lawyers continue to find new ways to push the outer bounds of civil litigation practices to accommodate large-scale disputes involving multiple claims or parties. Many question whether traditional procedures can or should apply to these cases. Drawing on this well-recognized procedural tension, this Article explores the relationship between trial and appellate courts in complex litigation and argues for a revised standard of appellate review for trial court decisions affecting the party structure …
Risk-Utility Balancing In Design Defect Cases, David G. Owen
Risk-Utility Balancing In Design Defect Cases, David G. Owen
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Design defectiveness is generally defined in terms of a risk-utility balance, the form of liability test adopted by the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability. However, confusion abounds in how courts formulate such balancing tests. A national survey of recent appellate court decisions reveals that courts generally define the balance in terms of the product's risks and utility, a formulation which appears to call for weighing the product's global costs against the product's global benefits. So defined, the design defect test is incorrect. What appellate courts mean for juries to decide, and what juries ordinarily do in fact decide, …
The Effectiveness Of Measures To Increase Appellate Court Efficiency And Decision Output, Thomas B. Marvell, Carlisle E. Moody
The Effectiveness Of Measures To Increase Appellate Court Efficiency And Decision Output, Thomas B. Marvell, Carlisle E. Moody
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article will examine the effectiveness of measures commonly employed to increase appellate court productivity. Part I of the Article sets forth some common design problems and explains how the research technique employed in the present study avoids these problems by using a multiple time-series research design. Part II applies this design to state court data. Part II also describes the dependent variable, the number of appeals decided per judge, used in the regression analysis. Part III discusses the results of that analysis-the impact of each change listed above on judicial productivity. The Article, although not advocating the adoption of …
An Appellate Court Dilemma And A Solution Through Subject Matter Organization, Daniel J. Meador
An Appellate Court Dilemma And A Solution Through Subject Matter Organization, Daniel J. Meador
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The recent litigation explosion presents a two-pronged dilemma for American appellate courts. If, on the one hand, the number of appellate judges is not expanded to keep abreast of growing case loads, there is a risk that courts will rely too heavily on professional staff, thereby watering down the decision-making process. If, on the other hand, the number of judges is proportionately increased with the growth in appellate litigation, the number of three-judge decisional units will also increase, thereby threatening predictability and uniformity in the law of the jurisdiction. This Article undertakes to explain that dilemma and to offer a …
Oral Argument And Expediting Appeals: A Compatible Combination, Joy A. Chapper
Oral Argument And Expediting Appeals: A Compatible Combination, Joy A. Chapper
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The purpose of this Article is to explore these issues in light of Sacramento's experience with the expedited appeal procedure. The data presented here are drawn from an evaluation of the first twelve months of the procedure's operation. This evaluation was based on court records of the more than one hundred cases that followed the expedited procedure to completion, in-person interviews with members of the court and court staff, and telephone interviews with participating attorneys. Part I briefly sets out the new procedure and the context in which this procedure was introduced and integrated. Part II discusses the conclusions that …
A Proposed New Federal Intermediate Appellate Court, Charles R. Haworth, Daniel J. Meador
A Proposed New Federal Intermediate Appellate Court, Charles R. Haworth, Daniel J. Meador
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article begins with an analysis of the recent history of federal appellate court reform efforts. It then focuses on three areas of federal litigation - tax law, patent law, and environmental law - in which there are exceptional needs for uniformity in the law but in which uncertainty in legal doctrine is especially pronounced. To make the law more uniform and predictable in these areas, the article proposes the new intermediate appellate court and sets forth in detail the jurisdiction arid structure of this court. The article concludes by pointing out aspects of this proposal that should make it …
Appellate Justice, Ruggero J. Aldisert
Appellate Justice, Ruggero J. Aldisert
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Justice on Appeal is a pithy analysis of the problem facing appellate courts. Dragon hunters Carrington, Meador, and Rosenberg were not content to look at the problem from an armchair. Instead, they walked to the mouth of the cave; pulled the troublesome dragon into the light, counted its teeth, measured its girth and tail, and decided neither to kill it nor kiss it. They decided to try taming it. I agree with their analysis of the specimen, its size, its growth, and the urgent necessity to bring the beast under control. I have some modest disagreements with some of their …
Justice On Appeal—One Way Or Many?, Michael E. Smith
Justice On Appeal—One Way Or Many?, Michael E. Smith
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
After two centuries of our nation's existence, discussions of federalism are certain to sound familiar. The ground of argument has been worked so thoroughly, there is hardly a patch left unturned. Conventional watchwords suggest the competing interests: adaptability to local circumstances contrasted with efficiencies of scale, circumscribed experimentation contrasted with prevention of forum-shopping, local self-government contrasted with the cosmopolitan perspective. The most that can be done now, absent exceptional insight, is to display these choices in a fresh context.
What follows is yet another variation on the theme. It concerns the propriety, perhaps the desirability, of diversity among the federal …
The Trial Transcript—An Unnecessary Roadblock To Expeditious Appellate Review, William H. Erickson
The Trial Transcript—An Unnecessary Roadblock To Expeditious Appellate Review, William H. Erickson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A number of innovations have been made in the appellate process which expedite appeals and tend to eliminate the need for a trial transcript. The American Bar Association Standards Relating to Judicial Administration and Standards Relating to Criminal Justice have provided the procedural means for improving our entire system of criminal justice. This article explores some innovations in the appellate process which eliminate the need for a complete record on appeal and discusses the various means to obtain a record of the proceeding in the trial court.
Judicial Administration And Invisible Justice, Mary Murphy Schroeder
Judicial Administration And Invisible Justice, Mary Murphy Schroeder
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
My theme here is the conflict between the visibility of the appellate judge and recent procedural changes designed to cope with the quantum leaps in the numbers and complexity of cases. I will develop that theme, first, by suggesting the ways that three of the major controls on the system, namely the selection, evaluation, and discipline of judges, depend upon the exercise of recognizable and individual judicial responsibility; second, by illustrating how this "imperative" can be undermined if devices intended to cope with increased volume are adopted without vigilance; and finally by pointing up some approaches to permit courts to …