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Full-Text Articles in Torts
Preliminary Damages, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein
Preliminary Damages, Gideon Parchomovsky, Alex Stein
Vanderbilt Law Review
Historically, the law helped impecunious plaintiffs overcome their inherent disadvantage in civil litigation. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case: modern law has largely abandoned the mission of assisting the least well-off. In this Essay, we propose a new remedy that can dramatically improve the fortunes of poor plaintiffs and thereby change the errant path of the law: preliminary damages. The unavailability of preliminary damages has dire implications for poor plaintiffs, especially those wronged by affluent individuals and corporations. Resource-constrained plaintiffs cannot afford prolonged litigation on account of their limited financial means. Consequently, they are forced to either forego suing …
Splitting The Baby: Standardizing Issue Class Certification, Jenna G. Farleigh
Splitting The Baby: Standardizing Issue Class Certification, Jenna G. Farleigh
Vanderbilt Law Review
The Bible depicts King Solomon resolving a dispute between two women who claimed to be the mother of the same child. In the pursuit of justice, King Solomon threatened to do the unthinkable- slice the child in two. Although severing children is not a recommended vehicle for justice, severing lawsuits is. In fact, in the class-action context, the "issue class" established by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(c)(4) does just what King Solomon threatened-it severs litigation into pieces, allowing aggregate treatment of only certain issues in a given lawsuit. Residual issues are left to be determined in plaintiff-specific, follow-on suits. …
Hypnotic Memories And Civil Sexual Abuse Trials, Jacqueline Kanovitz
Hypnotic Memories And Civil Sexual Abuse Trials, Jacqueline Kanovitz
Vanderbilt Law Review
In the next few paragraphs, the reader will eavesdrop on a psycho- therapy session. During this session, the therapist uses hypnosis, a common technique in clinical practice today. In the past, the legal system has paid little attention to the memory retrieval techniques used in psychotherapy because statutes of limitations have prevented patients from using memories of childhood wrongs uncovered in adult psycho-therapies to bring suit. However, recent changes will force the legal system to examine whether the memory restoring techniques used in psychotherapy can produce memory that is trustworthy enough for the legal system to accept. What follows is …
Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz
Civil Liability For Causing Suicide: A Synthesis Of Law And Psychiatry, Victor E. Schwartz
Vanderbilt Law Review
If suicide is a deliberate, intentional act by an individual, how can one person be "civilly liable for causing the suicide of another"? The paradox suggested by this question has caused many courts to shy away from imposing civil liability for causing suicide.' In certain situations,however, a growing number of courts are permitting recovery. Since suicide is on the increase both in numerical terms and in rank as a cause of death in the United States it can be expected that even more tort claims will be brought by parties attempting to fix civil responsibility on someone other than their …
Judicial Creation Of Direct Actions Against Automobile Liability Insurers: Shingleton V. Bussey, Jason G. Reynolds
Judicial Creation Of Direct Actions Against Automobile Liability Insurers: Shingleton V. Bussey, Jason G. Reynolds
Vanderbilt Law Review
Elizabeth R. Bussey commenced a negligence action in a Florida state trial court against Frances R.B. Shingleton for damages sustained in an automobile mishap. The accident itself was a rather ordinary rear-end collision. Out of the ordinary, however, was the fact that the plaintiff joined as a party defendant Shingleton's liability insurer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The trial judge, following the insurance policy's non-joinder provisions' and the weight of authority in Florida and elsewhere, granted Nationwide's motion that it be dismissed as a party defendant. Plaintiff appealed this order to the Florida District Court of Appeal on the theory that, …
Subrogation, Indemnity, Contribution And Election Of Remedies Aspects Of The Tort Claims Act, Fred Blanton
Subrogation, Indemnity, Contribution And Election Of Remedies Aspects Of The Tort Claims Act, Fred Blanton
Vanderbilt Law Review
Dramatically altering the concept of sovereign responsibility in the field of injuries to person and property, the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946 in action has progressed steadily by application and interpretation to emerge as one of the most, if not the most, important pieces of domestic legislation enacted during the past decade. This ascendency has transpired primarily because the overwhelming majority of courts have boldly taken a dynamic approach to the inevitable problems occurring and recurring in a day-to-day consideration of the multitude of factual permutations and combinations presented to them for analysis and decision under the Act. Generally …