Torts Commons^™

Rediscovering The Economics Of Loss Causation , Richard Kaplan, Madge Thorsen, Scott Hakala

ExpressO

Abstract This article explores the economic principles and theories underlying loss causation in the context of securities fraud litigation. It explains the difference between “investment loss” and recoverable “inflationary loss” and posits that the latter consists of the difference between inflation in stock prices caused by the fraud at the time of purchase and inflation in the price at the time of sale. It reviews scenarios in which inflationary loss due to fraud may occur and would be recognized as a matter of economic theory as well as a matter of law. It urges that Dura v. Broudo Pharmaceuticals, 125 …

Small Hope Floats: How The Lower Courts Have Sunk The Right Of Privacy, Stephanie D. Taylor

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opting Out Of Liability: The Forthcoming, Near-Total Demise Of The Modern Class Action, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

It is reasonable to expect that courts will demonstrate great solicitude for the recent innovation that I term "collective action waivers" - i.e., contractual provisions contained within arbitration agreements whereby consumers and others waive their rights to participate in any form of collective litigation or class arbitration. The history of mass tort class actions and the hegemonic expansion of pro-arbitration jurisprudence compel this conclusion. And, as the now-dominant economic model of contract law has moved the focus of courts from the value of consent to the value of efficiency, arbitration agreements found in all manner of shrink-wrap, scroll-text and bill-stuffer …

Opting Out Of Liability: The Forthcoming, Near-Total Demise Of The Modern Class Action, Myriam Gilles

Michigan Law Review

It is reasonable to expect that courts will demonstrate great solicitude for the recent innovation that I term "collective action waivers" - i.e., contractual provisions contained within arbitration agreements whereby consumers and others waive their rights to participate in any form of collective litigation or class arbitration. The history of mass tort class actions and the hegemonic expansion of pro-arbitration jurisprudence compel this conclusion. And, as the now-dominant economic model of contract law has moved the focus of courts from the value of consent to the value of efficiency, arbitration agreements found in all manner of shrink-wrap, scroll-text and bill-stuffer …

Torts, Deron R. Hicks

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Learning The Wrong Lessons From "An American Tragedy", David Bernstein

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

This paper is a critique of Margaret Berger and Aaron Twerski, “Uncertainty and Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert,” forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review. Berger and Twerski propose that courts recognize a cause of action that would allow plaintiffs who claim injury from pharmaceutical products, but who do not have sufficient evidence to prove causation, to recover damages for deprivation of informed choice. Berger and Twerski claim inspiration from the litigation over allegations that the morning sickness drug Bendectin caused birth defects.

Considering the criteria Berger and Twerski suggest for their proposed cause of action in the context of Bendectin, it …

Wrongful Birth: The Courts' Dilemma In Determining A Remedy For A "Blessed Event", Michael Thomas Murtaugh

ExpressO

My article deals with the tort of wrongful birth. It is an action in negligence against a physician who failed to properly perform a sterilization or abortion procedure, after which an unplanned or unwanted child was born. My focus is on the damages that the plaintiff parents should recover from the tortfeasor based on the parents' purpose not to have the child.

Restorative Justice, Slavery And The American Soul, A Policy-Oriented Approach To The Question Of Slavery Reparations By The United States, Michael F. Blevins

ExpressO

This LL.M. Intercultural Human Rights thesis (May, 2005), awarded the best student paper prize for 2005 by the Institute of Policy Sciences at Yale University (in October, 2005), after analysing past and curent issues regarding the culture wars controversy of "reparations", proposes a specific process for establishing Truth and Reconciliation regarding the legacy of slavery in the United States. The proposal recommends commissions in each Federal judicial district under the supervision of a U.S. Slavery Justice and Reconciliation Commission (USSJRC), calling for "America's 21st Century Contract with Africa and African-Americans".

Product Liability Law, Gary J. Spahn, Brent M. Timberlake

University of Richmond Law Review

While Virginia is not typically seen as "progressive" in the field of product liability law, the Commonwealth is nonetheless a forum in which these product liability battles take place. This article summarizes selected decisions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, federal district courts in Virginia, and courts of the Commonwealth issued between July 1, 2004 and May 15, 2005. This article also includes a discussion of the most relevant legislative changes made by the Virginia General Assembly over the same time period. While a complete analysis of every decision and statute affecting product liability is …

Uncertainty And Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert, Margaret A. Berger, Aaron D. Twerski

Michigan Law Review

This Article will first examine why it is that plaintiffs have been unable to prove causation under the Daubert guidelines in toxic tort litigation. Second, it will look at the two existing models for informed choice litigation medical malpractice and products liability-and demonstrate why neither of these models gives toxic tort plaintiffs a fair opportunity to recover for the deprivation of patient autonomy against drug manufacturers who have breached their duty to warn of known or knowable risks. Finally, this Article will explore the elements of a causation-free informed choice cause of action. It will suggest the appropriate standard for …

Uncertainty And Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert, Aaron D. Twerski, Margaret A. Berger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Accident Law For Egalitarians, Ronen Avraham, Issa Kohler-Hausmann

ExpressO

This paper questions the fairness of our current tort law regime and the philosophical underpinnings advanced in its defense, a theory known as corrective justice. Fairness requires the moral equality and responsibility of persons be respected in social interactions and institutions. The concept of luck has been used by many egalitarians as a way of giving content to fairness by differentiating between those benefits and burdens which result from informed choice from those that result from fate or fortune. We argue that the theory of corrective justice, and its institutional embodiment of tort law, is at odds with an egalitarian …

The Graeco-Roman Antecedents Of Modern Tort Law, Stuart Madden

ExpressO

It was not very long ago that Western law was formed from the rib of Graeco-Roman law, and our modern Western legal systems, civil code-based and common law alike, demonstrate that lineage, and the contributions of both societies, to surcease. While other cultural influences, including those from even more ancient sources may be identifiable, this article segregates Greco-Roman law for separate analysis for purposes of manageability. This article tracks the law of early Greece and early Rome from their respective origins in myth and legend to their comprehensive codifications. For the disparities in form and content, there are nonetheless significant …

The Promise Of Internet Intermediary Liability, Ronald J. Mann, Seth R. Belzley

William & Mary Law Review

The Internet has transformed the economics of communication, creating a spirited debate about the proper role of federal, state, and international governments in regulating conduct related to the Internet. Many argue that Internet communications should be entirely self-regulated because such communications cannot or should not be the subject of government regulation. The advocates of that approach would prefer a no-regulation zone around Internet communications, based largely on the unexamined view that Internet activity is fundamentally different in a way that justifies broad regulatory exemption. At the same time, some kinds of activity that the Internet facilitates undisputedly violate widely shared …

Neither Innocent Nor Proven Guilty: The Aviall Services V. Cooper Industries Dilemma, Jeannette Paull

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Hormone Replacement Therapy In The Wake Of The Women's Health Initiative Study: An Opportunity To Reexamine The Learned Intermediary Doctrine, Kate Miller

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Validity And Enforceability Of Liability Waivers On Ski Lift Tickets, C. Connor Crook

Campbell Law Review

This article attempts to highlight some of the important differences in the legal enforceability of waivers. Currently, there is no uniform national standard for what are the "inherent risks" of skiing. Because the variance in liability rules can affect injured skiers so acutely, attorneys representing both ski resorts and injured skiers need to be aware of real differences in the enforceability of waivers in a sport not unfamiliar with serious injuries.

Punitive Damages After Campbell: The Role Of Out-Of-State Conduct, Steven R. Hamlin

Campbell Law Review

This article examines the scope of out-of-state conduct that may be used after Campbell.

The Kindynamic Theory Of Tort, Christopher P. Guzelian

Indiana Law Journal

Commentators complain of two major deficiencies in modern tort law: (1) that liability concepts such as "negligence" or "duty " are so vacuously defined as to permit inadvertent subjectivity and error to hinder proper case adjudication, and (2) that tort is too slow in recognizing newly discovered risks and properly compensating nascent classes of injury. We accordingly report on the Kindynamic Theory, an emerging philosophy that overcomes these twin deficiencies and sharpens understanding of poorly articulated tort intuitions

Kindynamics contends that causation is the cornerstone of tort, and that all risks are, at core, causal propositions. Contrary to its many …

Malpractice Reform As A Health Policy Problem, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Calling malpractice reform a "health policy problem" means that we should analyze it in terms of the quality of health care, access to health care, and the cost of health care-the basic health policy triad with which we all are familiar. We immediately recognize patient safety as a health policy problem because it is obviously about quality. We may believe there is so much slack in the health care system that we can make major improvements in patient safety without excessive cost. But ultimately, there are going to be cost-safety tradeoffs, which are also health policy concerns. We tend not …

Initial Interest Confusion: Standing At The Crossroads Of Trademark Law, Jennifer E. Rothman

All Faculty Scholarship

While the benchmark of trademark infringement traditionally has been a demonstration that consumers are likely to be confused by the use of a similar or identical trademark to identify the goods or services of another, a court-created doctrine called initial interest confusion allows liability for trademark infringement solely on the basis that a consumer might initially be interested, attracted, or distracted by a competitor's, or even a non-competitor's, product or service. Initial interest confusion is being used with increasing frequency, especially on the Internet, to shut down speech critical of trademark holders and their products and services, to prevent comparative …

Should Tort Damages Be Multiplied?, Keith N. Hylton, Thomas J. Miceli

Faculty Scholarship

The notion that damages should be multiplied by the reciprocal of the probability of punishment is one of the basic lessons of the law and economics literature. However, the simple l/p" multiplier turns out be inapplicable in the civil damages setting. The multiplier that brings about first-best deterrence must be chosen by striking a balance between the supply of lawsuits and the need to internalize costs. Moreover, given the costs of litigation, a multiplier that minimizes overall social costs (in contrast to achieving first-best deterrence) may need to be set at a level that effectively bars many claims. This article …

The Accuracy And Manipulability Of Lost Profits Damages Calculations: Should The Trier Of Fact Be "Reasonably Certain"?, Jonathan T. Tomlin, David Merrell

ExpressO

The accuracy and manipulability of calculations for lost profits damages are critical determinants of the ability of harmed parties to receive just compensation in a wide range of legal cases including antitrust, fraud, false advertising, intellectual property infringement, and breach of contract. They are also important determinants of the deterrent effects of the law. Using a sample of over 5,000 U.S. firms, we show that simple damages methods are capable of being substantially inaccurate. We also show that damages methods in general are highly susceptible to manipulation. In the absence of reasonable justifications for why particular data sets and methods …

A Moving Target: Property Owners' Duty To Prevent Criminal Acts On The Premises, Deborah J. La Fetra

ExpressO

When do a landowners owe a duty to protect an individual on their property from the criminal acts of a third party? The answer to this question usually turns on whether the type of criminal act that occurred was foreseeable. Courts determine whether an act was foreseeable either by examining the totality of the circumstances or by demanding evidence of prior similar acts or some method of analysis that borrows from both approaches. This article addresses a variety of duty-foreseeability cases from around the country, paying particular attention to the three major decisions issued by the California Supreme Court in …

Summary Of May V. Anderson, 121 Nev. Adv. Op. 67, Patty L. Roberts

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This case is an appeal from a judgment of the Eighth Judicial District Court, Clark County, finding a settlement agreement between the parties to be valid and entering judgment in accordance with that agreement.

Causation And Attenuation In The Slavery Reparations Debate, Kaimipono D. Wenger

ExpressO

The success or failure of slavery reparations will depend on causation. Many criticisms of reparations have focused on the attenuated nature of the harm, suggesting that modern claimants are not connected to slaves, that modern payers are not connected to slave owners, and that harms suffered by modern Blacks cannot be connected to slavery. This Article examines these attenuation concerns and finds that they come in three related but distinct varieties: Victim attenuation, wrongdoer attenuation, and act attenuation. These three components, defined in this Article, show themselves in a number of interrelated arguments.

The Article then discusses how ideas about …

A Powers-Based Approach To Idea-Submission Law, Larissa Katz

ExpressO

This paper provides a unified account of idea-submission law in terms of legal powers. It argues that the duty upon a recipient of a novel and original idea results from the exercise of a legal power that the law confers on originators in order to enable them to share their ideas selectively. This paper contributes to our understanding of idea-submission law and to private law theory more generally in a number of ways that have not been addressed in the literature. First, it systematically reveals the lack of fit between the case law and conventional legal theories for the protection …

A Law And Economics Perspective On Terrorism, Nuno M. Garoupa , Jonathan Klick, Francesco Parisi

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

This paper reviews the existing law and economics literature on crime, noting where various models might apply to the terror context. Specifically, it focuses on two strands of the literature, deterrence and incapacitation. Challenging the conventional application of the basic rational agent model of crime in the context of terrorism, it considers anti-terror measures enacted by different countries, highlighting how the details of the laws correspond to the insights from economic models of crime. In conclusion, the paper proposes an efficient sorting mechanism in which individuals will be provided with adequate incentives to reveal their type to law enforcement authorities.

Accident Law For Egalitarians, Ronen Avraham, Issa Kohler-Hausmann

ExpressO

The article goes back to the basics. It questions the fairness of our current tort law regime and the philosophical underpinnings advanced in its defense, a theory with its roots in Aristotelian thought, called corrective justice. We critique tort law and corrective justice from a standpoint of egalitarian fairness, inspired by distributive justice philosophers such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin. Our argument is that the strict theoretical and institutional insulation of tort law—and the normative theory underlying it, corrective justice—from other institutions and principles of justice, namely distributive and retributive justice, gives rise to deleterious consequences in terms of …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.