Law Commons^™

Practical Considerations For Effective Use Of Expert Witnesses And Computer Models In Complex Groundwater Litigation, William A. Paddock

Uncovering the Hidden Resource: Groundwater Law, Hydrology, and Policy in the 1990s (Summer Conference, June 15-17)

14 pages.

In Support Of Huber, Jon F. Merz

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

The author takes exception to two recent reviews of GALILEO'S REVENGE.

Three Attorney Fee-Shifting Rules And Contingency Fees: Their Impact On Settlement Incentives, Bradley L. Smith

Michigan Law Review

This Note seeks to predict the direction and magnitude of the change in settlement frequency under the three fee-shifting rules: American, British, and the British rule as modified by the PCC. Part I analyzes the proposed rule using the theoretical model of litigation and settlement developed by Hause. Part II examines the impact of fee-shifting when the plaintiff's lawyer receives reimbursement via a contingency fee. Analysis of indemnification in a contingency fee context raises several policy issues which section II.A addresses. Section II.B discusses the terms and assumptions made in adjusting Hause's model to reflect the standard contingency fee arrangement, …

Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus The United States, Martin J. Lalonde

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States by Edward Lazarus

Surviving Judicial Activism In The Tenth Circuit: An Analysis Of Berry V. City Of Muskogee, Ned S. Fuller

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Experts As Hearsay Conduits: Confrontation Abuses In Opinion Testimony, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

The dispute over whether litigants may use experts to run unexamined hearsay into the trial record is a microcosm of a larger debate. The larger question is whether judicial review of expert testimony should be passive, or whether the expert witness process should be marked by active judicial policing. Does the plethora of expert opinions presently being offered in modern trials merit special scrutiny by the courts?

Some scholars urge that courts must accommodate experts. Proponents of this view favor few challenges to the unrestricted rendition of opinions by an expert, whether the expert is real or self-proclaimed. Under this …

Litigation & Inequality: Federal Diversity Jurisdiction In Industrial America, 1870–1958, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Books

Through the prism of litigation practice and tactics, Purcell explores the dynamic relationship between legal and social change. He studies changing litigation patterns in suits between individuals and national corporations over tort claims for personal injuries and contract claims for insurance benefits. Purcell refines the "progressive" claim that the federal courts favored business enterprise during this time, identifying specific manners and times in which the federal courts reached decisions both in favor of and against national corporations. He also identifies 1892-1908 as a critical period in the evolution of the twentieth century federal judicial system.

Case Management In The Eastern District Of Virginia, In Symposium, Civil Litigation In The 1990'S, Part Ii, A. Kimberley Dayton

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Article describes the administrative structure of the Eastern District of Virginia and its case management practices. Part II demonstrates that, despite the Eastern District of Virginia's status as one of the busiest federal district courts, it has consistently been one of the most efficient and effective federal courts in the nation. As a result, in Part III, this Article concludes that the experience of the Eastern District of Virginia raises many questions about the premises underlying the Civil Justice Reform Act, the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules, and the means by which Congress and the …

Litigation, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Equalizing The Cost Of Divorce Under The Uniform Marriage And Divorce Act: Maintenance Awards In Illinois, Jane Rutherford, Barbara Tishler

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reinsurance: Bad Faith Considerations And Insolvency Dilemma, Hui-Ju Hsieh

LLM Theses and Essays

Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company. The original insurance company is called the reinsured, and the insurance company that is contracted is called the reinsurer. The main purpose of reinsurance is to disperse or spread the risk of loss. The reinsurance relationship is frequently characterized as an exercise of fiduciary responsibility based upon an undertaking of utmost good faith between contracting parties. However, disputes arise; most litigation involving reinsurance has been between reinsurers and persons not party to the reinsurance agreement. This paper’s first major area of discussion is the relationship between the reinsurer …

Evaluating Regulatory Interpretations: Individual Statements, Russell L. Weaver

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Jurors' Judgments Of Business Liability In Tort Cases: Implications For The Litigation Explosion, Valerie P. Hans, William S. Lofquist

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Criticisms of the civil jury, including charges that the jury is biased against business, have been central to debates over the litigation explosion and demands for tort reform. This article seeks to inform these ongoing controversies by examining tort jurors' accounts of how they reached decisions in cases with business parties. Interviews and questionnaire data showed that jurors were skeptical of plaintiff tort cases against businesses, organized their accounts more on the actions and motivations of plaintiffs than on the responsibilities of business, and spoke often of the litigation crisis and the importance of limiting awards.

Environmental Litigation And Rule 11, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1983 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 has been the most controversial revision in the half-century history of the Federal Rules. Judges have applied amended Rule 11, which requires them to sanction lawyers and parties who do not conduct reasonable inquiries before filing papers, in over 1000 reported opinions, considerably more unreported determinations, and numerous informal contexts. The Rule has engendered much unnecessary satellite litigation and has been implemente4 inconsistently, while attorneys' fees remain the "sanction of choice" for violations. Rule 11 activity has especially disadvantaged civil rights plaintiffs and lawyers, whose lack of resources can make …

Why Vosburg Comes First, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Litigation As A Predatory Practice, Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

This article reviews and evaluates the sham litigation case law, finding that many courts have allowed immunity too readily or on inappropriate grounds. It attempts to develop comprehensive standards for antitrust claims based on sham litigation.

Exchange Loss Damages And The Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act: The Emperor Hasn't All His Clothes, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

In 1989, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a new Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act. This Act is designed to change and clarify the law regarding judgments on obligations denominated in a foreign currency. It does so by recognizing that old rules preventing judgment in a foreign currency - developed in times of a strong dollar - are inappropriate. Unfortunately, in seeking fairness for plaintiffs when the U.S. dollar is weak, the Act replaces rigid old rules with stiff new rules that fail to address the basic issue of appropriate damages for exchange rate losses. While the …

Florida's Equal Access To Justice Act: How The Courts And Doah Have Interpreted It, Mary W. Chaisson

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Forfeiture Of Property For Drug Offenders Under Illinois And Federal Statute: Zero Tolerance, Zero Exceptions, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 389 (1992), T. J. Hiles

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Meta-Evidence: Do We Need It?, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Section 1983 Litigation, Martin A. Schwartz, Honorable Leon D. Lazer, Honorable George C. Pratt

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Practice, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the Survey year seventeen articles of the CPLR were amended and three new articles were added. Also, effective December 1, 1991, Congress has approved important amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Civil Justice Expenses and Delay Reduction Plans were adopted by the Board of Judges of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Additionally, there have been significant developments in the decisional law of discovery, statute of limitations, sanctions, and res judicata. These and other areas should be of interest to the practitioner.

Making The Law Of Factual Determinations Matter More, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Unattainable Justice: The Form Of Complex Litigation And The Limits Of Judicial Power, Jay Tidmarsh

Journal Articles

Part I begins the inquiry by describing the practical and theoretical factors that have led various courts and commentators to label particular types of litigation "complex." Although all the definitions provide important data about the nature of complex litigation, none capture its full breadth. Thus, the task of the Article's next two Parts is to develop a formal and inclusive definition. Part II builds the theoretical framework for the definition by describing the form of adjudication and the positive assumptions of modern civil litigation.

Next, Part III demonstrates that complex litigation arises from the friction between the real-world problems outlined …

The Supreme Court, 1991 Term - Leading Cases, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bankruptcy-Based Discrimination, Douglass G. Boshkoff

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Power And Legal Artifice: The Federal Class Action, Bryant Garth

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Using case studies and interviews with lawyers and representatives in class actions, this article explores the contribution that class actions make to their ostensible beneficiaries. The article first distinguishes the major types of class actions in terms of the roles of lawyers and class representatives, ranging from very passive representatives to individuals intensively involved with the dispute that gave rise to the litigation. The article next seeks to evaluate the class actions. On the basis of the results of the class actions, the article finds that class actions cannot be proclaimed major contributors to social change. The focus on results, …

Civil Rights Conundrum, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

As a case study of the impediments imposed by the revised F.R.C.P. Rule 11 in civil rights litigation, Professor Tobias relates the story of the Robeson County, N.C. prosecution of Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, their subsequent civil rights action, and the ensuing Rule 11 sanctions imposed upon their counsel, as reported in In re Kunstler, 914 F.2d 505 (4th Cir. 1990).

Sanctions, Symmetry, And Safe Harbors: Limiting Misapplication Of Rule 11 By Harmonizing It With Pre-Verdict Dismissal Devices, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

With only a small risk of overstatement, one could say that sanctions in civil litigation exploded during the 1980s, with the 1983 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 acting as the principal catalyst. From 1938 until the 1983 amendment, only two dozen or so cases on Rule 11 were reported, with courts rarely imposing sanctions. Although a few cases were notable by virtue of sanction size, prestige of the firm sanctioned, or publicity attending the underlying case, the legal profession largely regarded Rule 11 as a dead letter. In addition, other sanctions provisions, such as Federal Rule of …

International Judicial Assistance, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

The general or even specialized practitioner faces serious difficulties as the world shrinks and the practice of law frequently transcends international boundaries. In the civil and commercial arena, issues of discovery and service of documents abroad, others relating to judicial assistance from foreign courts, available to American courts or individual litigants, and assistance available from American courts for foreign governments and individual litigants, can be mindboggling. In an age where transnational litigation (that is, domestic litigation that touches upon one or more foreign jurisdictions) is rapidly increasing, counsel could be guilty of malpractice if counsel takes action abroad that proves …