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Civil Procedure Commons

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2014

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Articles 31 - 60 of 261

Full-Text Articles in Civil Procedure

Trial By Jury Or Judge: Which Is Speedier?, Theodore Eisenberg, Kevin Clermont Dec 2014

Trial By Jury Or Judge: Which Is Speedier?, Theodore Eisenberg, Kevin Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

Many take as a given that jury-tried cases consume more time than judge-tried cases. Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit, for example, opines: “Court queues are almost always greatest for parties seeking civil jury trials. This makes economic sense. Such trials are more costly than bench trials both because of jury fees (which … understate the true social costs of the jury) and because a case normally takes longer to try to a jury than to a judge …. Parties are therefore “charged” more for jury trials by being made to wait in line longer.” A close reading reveals …


Courts In Cyberspace, Theodore Eisenberg, Kevin M. Clermont Dec 2014

Courts In Cyberspace, Theodore Eisenberg, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

No abstract provided.


Class Certification’S Preclusive Effects, Kevin M. Clermont Dec 2014

Class Certification’S Preclusive Effects, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

In September 2010, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the controversial Baycol litigation. The central question will be whether, subsequent to a denial of class certification, preclusion can prevent an absentee from seeking to certify another class action on a similar claim. This Essay answers that question in the affirmative, while warning that the preclusion is very limited in scope. It arrives at this answer by analogizing to the more established doctrine of jurisdiction to determine no jurisdiction: if a court’s finding of no jurisdiction over the subject matter or the person can preclude, then a finding of no authority …


Teaching Civil Procedure Through Its Top Ten Cases, Plus Or Minus Two, Kevin M. Clermont Dec 2014

Teaching Civil Procedure Through Its Top Ten Cases, Plus Or Minus Two, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

The thesis is that Civil Procedure teachers should give more attention to the subject's landmark cases. Law teachers' common sense and cognitive scientists' schema theory lend support to that thesis. The pedagogic implications of that thesis call for an enriched case method, the essence of which is teaching a slightly smaller number of cases and pausing on the key ones, thoroughly examining them in a rich context. The optimal sources of that context are written case studies, assigned as intermittent supplementation.


Exorbitant Jurisdiction, Kevin M. Clermont, John R.B. Palmer Dec 2014

Exorbitant Jurisdiction, Kevin M. Clermont, John R.B. Palmer

Kevin M. Clermont

Exorbitant territorial jurisdiction in civil cases comprises those classes of jurisdiction, although exercised validly under a country's rules, that nonetheless are unfair to the defendant because of a lack of significant connection between the sovereign and either the parties or the dispute. The United States, France, and most of the rest of the world exercise a good deal of exorbitant jurisdiction so defined. In the United States, an emphasis on power derived from territoriality has led to jurisdictional restraint in some respects, but has also allowed general jurisdiction based solely on transient physical presence, the attachment of property, or extensive …


Restating Territorial Jurisdiction And Venue For State And Federal Courts, Kevin M. Clermont Dec 2014

Restating Territorial Jurisdiction And Venue For State And Federal Courts, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

"Jurisdiction must become venue," concluded Professor Albert A. Ehrenzweig. Perhaps it should. More certain is the proposition that comprehending jurisdiction requires mastering its relationship with venue. Such conclusions lie at some distance, however, bringing to mind that every journey must begin with a single step. A solid first step takes me to the subject of this Symposium, the Restatement (Second) of Judgments. This, put simply, is a masterful work. Even while still in tentative drafts, it proved an invaluable aid to judge, practitioner, teacher, and student. Yet in a work of such scope, anyone could find grounds for differing. At …


Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs In Federal Court: From Bad To Worse?, Kevin M. Clermont, Stewart J. Schwab Dec 2014

Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs In Federal Court: From Bad To Worse?, Kevin M. Clermont, Stewart J. Schwab

Kevin M. Clermont

This Article utilizes the Administrative Office's data to convey the realities of federal employment discrimination litigation. Litigants in these "jobs" cases appeal more often than other litigants, with the defendants doing far better on those appeals than the plaintiffs. These troublesome facts help explain why today fewer plaintiffs are undertaking the frustrating route into federal district court, where plaintiffs must pursue their claims relatively often all the way through trial and where at both pretrial and trial these plaintiffs lose unusually often.


Foreigners' Fate In America's Courts: Empirical Legal Research, Kevin Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg Dec 2014

Foreigners' Fate In America's Courts: Empirical Legal Research, Kevin Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Kevin M. Clermont

This article revisits the controversy regarding how foreigners fare in U.S. courts. The available data, if taken in a sufficiently big sample from numerous case categories and a range of years, indicate that foreigners have fared better in the federal courts than their domestic counterparts have fared. Thus, the data offer no support for the existence of xenophobic bias in U.S. courts. Nor do they establish xenophilia, of course. What the data do show is that case selection drives the outcomes for foreigners. Foreigners’ aversion to U.S. forums can elevate the foreigners’ success rates, when measured as a percentage of …


Death Of Paradox: The Killer Logic Beneath The Standards Of Proof, Kevin Clermont Dec 2014

Death Of Paradox: The Killer Logic Beneath The Standards Of Proof, Kevin Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

The prevailing but contested view of proof standards is that factfinders should determine facts by probabilistic reasoning. Given imperfect evidence, they should ask themselves what they think the chances are that the burdened party would be right if the truth were to become known; they then compare those chances to the applicable standard of proof. I contend that for understanding the standards of proof, the modern versions of logic — in particular, fuzzy logic and belief functions — work better than classical probability. This modern logic suggests that factfinders view evidence of an imprecisely perceived and described reality to form …


Procedure's Magical Number Three: Psychological Bases For Standards Of Decision, Kevin M. Clermont Dec 2014

Procedure's Magical Number Three: Psychological Bases For Standards Of Decision, Kevin M. Clermont

Kevin M. Clermont

So many procedural doctrines appear, after research and teaching, to trifurcate. An obvious example is that kind of standard of decision known as the standard of proof: what in theory might have been a continuum of standards divides in practice into the three distinct standards of preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing evidence, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Other examples suggest both that I am not imagining the prominence of three and that more than coincidence is at work. Part I of this essay describes the role of the number three in procedure, with particular regard to standards …


Trial By Jury Or Judge: Transcending Empiricism, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg Dec 2014

Trial By Jury Or Judge: Transcending Empiricism, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Kevin M. Clermont

Pity the civil jury, seen by some as the sickest organ of a sick system. Yet the jury has always been controversial. One might suppose that, with so much at stake for so long, we would all know a lot about the ways juries differ from judges in their behavior. In fact, we know remarkably little. This Article provides the first large-scale comparison of plaintiff win rates and recoveries in civil cases tried before juries and judges. In two of the most controversial areas of modern tort law--product liability and medical malpractice--the win rates substantially differ from other cases' win …


Convicting Lennie: Mental Retardation, Wrongful Convictions, And The Right To A Fair Trial, John H. Blume, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Susan E. Millor Dec 2014

Convicting Lennie: Mental Retardation, Wrongful Convictions, And The Right To A Fair Trial, John H. Blume, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Susan E. Millor

John H. Blume

"Lennie" refers to Lennie Small, the intellectually disabled character in John Steinbeck's famous novella Of Mice and Men, which tells the story of two Depression-era wandering farmhands, George and Lennie, who dream of getting their own stake and living "off the fat of the land." Their dream dies hard when Lennie accidently kills the young, beautiful, and flirtatious wife of a ranch owner's son and then tries to cover it up because he realizes that he has "done a bad thing." George, in turn, kills Lennie to prevent him from being lynched or tried for murder. Lennie was doomed because …


Acciones Colectivas Vs Cláusula De Arbitraje, Jorge E. De Hoyos Walther Dec 2014

Acciones Colectivas Vs Cláusula De Arbitraje, Jorge E. De Hoyos Walther

Jorge E De Hoyos Walther

Análisis de la resolución de la Suprema Corte de Justicia que permite la procedencia una accione colectiva, aun cuando las partes se hayan sometido al arbitraje.


The Application And Avoidance Of Foreign Law In The Law Of Conflicts: Variations On A Theme Of Alexander Nekam, Gregory S. Alexander Dec 2014

The Application And Avoidance Of Foreign Law In The Law Of Conflicts: Variations On A Theme Of Alexander Nekam, Gregory S. Alexander

Gregory S Alexander

Lying at the heart of all conflicts theories is a recognition that the function of the law of conflicts is to ensure rational and just solutions to controversies involving foreign elements. A just and rational solution is one that somehow accommodates those elements. This does not mean that the foreign law must be applied but simply suggests that at least some attention should be paid to that law in the process of resolving disputes. From these relatively uncontroversial postulates, one moves to the more difficult problem of defining the role of foreign law in the conflicts setting. Attention in this …


The Twilight Of The Minimum Contacts Test, Patrick J. Borchers Dec 2014

The Twilight Of The Minimum Contacts Test, Patrick J. Borchers

Seton Hall Circuit Review

No abstract provided.


Bigger Isn’T Always Better: An Analysis Of Court Efficiency Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Teresa Dalton, Jordan M. Singer Dec 2014

Bigger Isn’T Always Better: An Analysis Of Court Efficiency Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Teresa Dalton, Jordan M. Singer

Pace Law Review

One important measure of trial court efficiency is overall case length—that is, the elapsed time from a case’s initial filing to its final disposition. Using a large, recent dataset from nearly 7000 federal civil cases, we find that two variables are particularly useful in predicting overall case length: the total number of attorneys filing an appearance in the case, and the number of authorized judgeships for a given district court. Further, we find a significant and surprising interaction between these two variables, indicating that smaller courts are more efficient than larger courts at processing civil cases when more than three …


Taxpayers’ Lack Of Standing In International Tax Dispute Resolutions: An Analysis Based On The Hybrid Norms Of International Taxation, Limor Riza Dec 2014

Taxpayers’ Lack Of Standing In International Tax Dispute Resolutions: An Analysis Based On The Hybrid Norms Of International Taxation, Limor Riza

Pace Law Review

This paper examines whether a taxpayer should have “standing” in international dispute resolutions. To answer this question the primary task is to identify the nature of international taxation. In other words, this paper discusses how to classify the field of international taxation. Is it part of public international law, private international law (i.e., conflict of laws), national (domestic) law, or is it a hybrid field that requires specific attention? Making this distinction is vital for resolving disputes when a taxpayer is taxed twice for cross-border transactions in cases where the double tax convention is unclear and both contracting states claim …


Reexamining The Seventh Amendment Argument Against Issue Certification, Douglas Mcnamara, Blake Boghosian, Leila Aminpour Dec 2014

Reexamining The Seventh Amendment Argument Against Issue Certification, Douglas Mcnamara, Blake Boghosian, Leila Aminpour

Pace Law Review

Issue certification does not run afoul of the Seventh Amendment because of the constitutional doctrines of standing and ripeness. Part II(A) and II(B) examines FRCP 23 and the history of class actions and issue certifications. Next, Part II(C) analyzes Rhone Poulenc and its Seventh Amendment analysis. Part III(A) argues that ripeness and standing undermine Seventh Amendment arguments concerning reexamination. First, as to ripeness, the reexamination argument relies on a series of speculations: that the class plaintiffs will prevail on the trial of the common issues; and that a second jury would—contrary to legal presumptions — ignore the trial judge’s instructions, …


Pragmatism Applied: Imagining A Solution To The Problem Of Court Congestion, Michael L. Seigel Dec 2014

Pragmatism Applied: Imagining A Solution To The Problem Of Court Congestion, Michael L. Seigel

Michael L Seigel

Can we improve the efficiency of jury trials? If so, would this reduce the problem of court congestion? Is there any reason to favor this approach over those that seek to avoid jury trials altogether? This Article attempts to answer these difficult questions. It does so by articulating and then employing a methodology suggested by recent scholarly ruminations about the philosophy of pragmatism and its implications for legal scholarship and practice. Although pragmatism does not provide "right answers" to questions of legal doctrine-indeed, it rejects the notion that such things exist-it does provide some guidance in formulating the search for …


An Unsettling Outcome: Why The Florida Supreme Court Was Wrong To Ban All Settlement Evidence In Saleeby V Rocky Elson Construction, Inc., 3 So. 3d 1078 (Fla. 2009), Michael L. Seigel, Robert J. Hauser, Allison D. Sirica Dec 2014

An Unsettling Outcome: Why The Florida Supreme Court Was Wrong To Ban All Settlement Evidence In Saleeby V Rocky Elson Construction, Inc., 3 So. 3d 1078 (Fla. 2009), Michael L. Seigel, Robert J. Hauser, Allison D. Sirica

Michael L Seigel

It is rare that a court as sophisticated as the Florida Supreme Court casually makes a fundamental mistake in an important area of the law. Unfortunately, Saleeby v. Rocky Elson Construction, Inc., 3 So. 3d 1078 (Fla. 2009) represents one of these unusual instances. The Court was faced with a simple question: may evidence pertaining to a prior settlement be offered at trial when it is relevant to something other than liability or the invalidity or amount of the pending claim. The universal answer under both federal law and the law of other states is yes, as long as the …


Is That All There Is? "The Problem" In Court-Oriented Mediation, Leonard L. Riskin, Nancy A. Welsh Dec 2014

Is That All There Is? "The Problem" In Court-Oriented Mediation, Leonard L. Riskin, Nancy A. Welsh

Leonard L Riskin

The alternative process of mediation is now well-institutionalized and widely (though not universally) perceived to save time and money and satisfy lawyers and parties. However, the process has failed to meet important aspirations of its early proponents and certain expectations and needs of one-shot players. In particular, court-oriented mediation now reflects the dominance and preferences of lawyers and insurance claims adjusters. These repeat players understand the problem to be addressed in personal injury, employment, contract, medical malpractice and other ordinary civil non-family disputes as a matter of merits assessment and litigation risk analysis. Mediation is structured so that litigation issues …


Business Entities - Basic Legal Issues, Curtis E.A. Karnow Dec 2014

Business Entities - Basic Legal Issues, Curtis E.A. Karnow

Curtis E.A. Karnow

Brief introduction to certain business litigation issues including vicarious liability, sealing records, representation by counsel, qualification of domestic corporations; depositions of persons most knowledgeable, and conflicts of laws.


Una Vez Más Sobre La Tercería De Propiedad Contra Embargo. A Propósito De Un Reciente Pronunciamiento De La Corte Suprema, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual Dec 2014

Una Vez Más Sobre La Tercería De Propiedad Contra Embargo. A Propósito De Un Reciente Pronunciamiento De La Corte Suprema, Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

Jimmy J. Ronquillo Pascual

En una reciente sentencia casatoria, la Sala Civil Permanente de la Corte Suprema ha hecho prevalecer el embargo inscrito frente a la propiedad no registrada. En opinión del autor, esta sentencia, a diferencia de anteriores pronunciamientos, invoca argumentos distintos a los tradicionales, por lo que marca un punto de referencia imprescindible para cualquier análisis de la tendencia jurisprudencial sobre la materia. Por ello, en este trabajo, se efectúan diversas precisiones sobre esta decisión judicial, lo cual es especialmente relevante en la medida que se estima que en el próximo Pleno Casatorio Civil nuestra Corte Suprema unifi cará criterios sobre la …


Amended Complaints Post-Twiqbal: Why Litigants Should Still Get A Second Bite At The Pleading Apple, Dane Westermeyer Dec 2014

Amended Complaints Post-Twiqbal: Why Litigants Should Still Get A Second Bite At The Pleading Apple, Dane Westermeyer

Washington Law Review

The Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal have had a serious effect on the way that Rule 12(b)(6) Motions to Dismiss are handled in federal courts across the country. In the five years since Iqbal was handed down, scholars and practitioners alike have discussed the merits and effects of this decision at length. However, there has been very little—if any—discussion on the relationship between amended complaints and original complaints when it comes to this newly-minted plausibility standard. This Comment aims to examine and critique a post-Twiqbal practice regarding amended complaints that …


Trans-Personal Procedures, Roger Michalski Nov 2014

Trans-Personal Procedures, Roger Michalski

Roger Michalski

No abstract provided.


A Tragédia Do Judiciário, Ivo T. Gico Jr. Nov 2014

A Tragédia Do Judiciário, Ivo T. Gico Jr.

Ivo Teixeira Gico Jr.

This paper shows how legal uncertainty caused by the lack of case law uniformity (legal capital) can explain the court congestion problem in Brazil. The analysis indicates that judges do not have enough incentives and mechanisms to invest in legal capital and to unify legal rules. The resulting legal uncertainty, combined with constitutionally granted free access to public adjudicatory services, generate incentives for the overexploitation of courts, hence, the endemic problem of court congestion, the Tragedy of Judiciary. Court congestion attracts litigation to stall legal obligations while excluding legitimate claims, a tragic adverse selection problem.


Reconceptualizing The Expert Witness: Social Costs, Current Controls And Proposed Responses, Jeffrey L. Harrison Nov 2014

Reconceptualizing The Expert Witness: Social Costs, Current Controls And Proposed Responses, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Jeffrey L Harrison

Unlike virtually any other business, expert witnesses are not typically held accountable in either tort or contract law for their commercial activities. This means that many are inclined to deliver what the market demands - partisan, biased, or plainly dishonest testimony - without concern for the costs this testimony may impose on others. This immunity from the internalization of the social cost of their testimony is hard to reconcile with any moral or economic standard. Harsh judicial reactions to some experts and a slight increase in expert witness liability may signal that a change in the privileged status of experts …


Summary Of Valdez V. Cox Commc’Ns Las Vegas, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 89, Stephen Davis Nov 2014

Summary Of Valdez V. Cox Commc’Ns Las Vegas, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 89, Stephen Davis

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that: (1) under NRCP 21, when claims are severed, two separate actions exist and severed claims may be appealed before resolution of the other, non-severed claims; and (2) a final order for severed claims need not be certified under NRCP 54(b) before appeal.


Reforming The Consumer Class Action, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch Nov 2014

Reforming The Consumer Class Action, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Presentations and Speeches

Professor Elizabeth Chamblee Burch was part of a panel on Reforming the Consumer Class Action. This was part of a conference entitled: The Future of Class Action Litigation: A View From the Consumer Class that took place at the New York University School of Law on November 7, 2014


The New York Court Of Appeals Visits (And Then Revisits) The Preclusive Impact Of Administrative Findings Of Fact In Subsequent State Court Actions, Jay C. Carlisle Nov 2014

The New York Court Of Appeals Visits (And Then Revisits) The Preclusive Impact Of Administrative Findings Of Fact In Subsequent State Court Actions, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Court of Appeals decision in Auqui v. Seven Thirty One Limited Partnership, 3 N.E.3d 682 (N.Y. 2013), recognizes that administrative proceedings which take the form of “quasi-judicial” determinations may sometimes be given preclusive impact in subsequent judicial proceedings provided that the identity of issue and full and fair opportunity requirements of collateral estoppel or issue preclusion are satisfied. The decision also recognizes that administrative determinations made without the benefit of rules of evidence, pre-trial disclosure and motion practice should be given very limited affect in subsequent judicial proceedings. The fact that the Empire State’s highest court unanimously reversed itself …