Law Commons^™

Expertise And Opinion Assignment On The Courts Of Appeals: A Preliminary Investigation, Jonathan Remy Nash

Florida Law Review

This Article examines the role of expertise in judicial opinion assignment and offers four contributions: First, this Article develops a general theory of opinion assignment on multimember courts. Second, this Article uses that theory to predict how expertise might influence opinion assignment. Third, because the theory advanced in this Article suggests that the courts of appeals are far more likely to witness experience-based opinion assignment than is the Supreme Court, this Article contributes to an understanding of opinion assignment practices in this understudied area. Fourth, this Article identifies two settings in which the theory this Article advances should have observable …

The Lock-In Effect Of Preliminary Injunctions, Kevin J. Lynch

Florida Law Review

One important bias economists and psychologists have identified is the lock-in effect. The lock-in effect causes a decision maker who must revisit an earlier decision to be locked in to that earlier decision. The effect is particularly pronounced where the earlier decision led to the investment of resources that cannot be recovered. Although lock-in does not prevent the decision maker from altering course, it does introduce a systemic bias that should be taken into account.

Preliminary injunctions require judges to assess the merits of a case at an early stage and then revisit the merits later. In the early stages …