Litigation Commons^™

Maybe There's No Bias In The Selection Of Disputes For Litigation, Eric Helland, Daniel M. Klerman, Yoon-Ho Alex Lee

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

New York “closing statement” data provide unique insight into the distribution of damages and settlements amounts in ordinary tort litigation. The distribution of damages and settlements are remarkably similar, and the average settlement is very close to the average judgment. One possible interpretation of the data is that selection effects may be small or non-existent. Because the existing litigation models all feature selection bias, we develop a simple inconsistent-priors model that results in no selection bias and is consistent with the data. In addition, we show that the New York data cannot be explained by simple versions of screening, signaling ...

Contingent Fee Litigation In New York City, Eric Helland, Daniel M. Klerman, Brenda Dowling, Alexander Kappner

University of Southern California Legal Studies Working Paper Series

Since 1957, New York courts have required contingent fee lawyers to file “closing statements” that disclose settlement amounts, lawyers’ fees, an accounting of expenses, and other information. This article provides preliminary analysis of these data for the period 2004-2013. Among this article’s findings are that settlement rates in New York state courts are very high (85%), that very few cases are resolved by dispositive motions, that litigated cases and settled cases have almost exactly the same average recovery, that median litigation expenses are 3% of gross recovery, that claims are disproportionately from poor neighborhoods, and that attorneys’ fees are ...

The Geography Of Climate Change Litigation: Implications For Transnational Regulatory Governance, Hari M. Osofsky

Hari Osofsky

This Article aims to forward the dialogue about transnational regulatory governance through a law and geography analysis of climate change litigation. Part II begins by considering fundamental barriers to responsible transnational energy production. Part III proposes a place-based approach to dissecting climate change litigation and a model for understanding its spatial implications. Parts IV through VI map representative examples of climate change litigation in subnational, national, and supranational fora. The Article concludes by exploring the normative implications of this descriptive geography; it engages the intersection of international law, international relations, and geography as a jumping-off point for a companion article.

A Study Of The Costs Of Legal Services In Personal Injury Litigation In Ontario: Final Report, Allan C. Hutchinson

Allan C. Hutchinson

Contingency Fee Agreements (CFAs) are now a fixed feature of the Ontario litigation landscape. However, little research or study has been done on exactly how they operate in practice, whether they advance the objectives that they were intended to achieve, and whether litigants are best served by the current arrangements. In this study, I intend to make a preliminary start to that research, set out some tentative criticisms of the CFA system as it currently operates, and, where appropriate, suggest preliminary proposals for change.

It should be said at the outset that my efforts to obtain real and serious data ...

The Rule Of Reason, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust’s rule of reason was born out of a thirty year (1897-1927) division among Supreme Court Justices about the proper way to assess multi-firm restraints on competition. By the late 1920s the basic contours of the rule for restraints among competitors was roughly established. Antitrust policy toward vertical restraints remained much more unstable, however, largely because their effects were so poorly understood.

This article provides a litigation field guide for antitrust claims under the rule of reason – or more precisely, for situations when application of the rule of reason is likely. At the time pleadings are drafted and even ...

Following The Rules: Exclusion Of Witness, Sequestration, And No-Consultation Orders, Richard H. Underwood

Richard H. Underwood

In this Article, Professor Underwood discusses the varying application of Rule 615 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which provides for the exclusion of witnesses. He explains that varying application of Rule 615 and state evidence rules following Rule 615's language creates misunderstandings at trial. Thus, it is important to know not only the federal and local rules but also the "way things are done" in a particular court.

Sex Discrimination: Social Security Benefits, Neil B. Cohen, Catherine A. Broderick, Charles H. Klein

Charles H. Klein

No abstract provided.

Three Hundred Nos: An Empirical Analysis Of The First 300+ Denials Of Institution For Inter Partes And Covered Business Method Patent Reviews Prior To In Re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, Llc, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 112 (2015), Jarrad Wood, Jonathan Stroud

Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Tasked in 2011 with creating powerful new patent review trial regimes, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—through the efforts of their freshly empowered quasi-judicial body, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board—set to creating a fast-paced trial with limited discovery and concentrated efficiency. For two years, the proceedings have proved potent, holding unpatentable many of the claims that reached decisions on the merits. Yet a small subsection of petitions never make it past the starting gate, resulting in wasted time and effort on the parts of petitioners—and likely sighs of relief from the rights-holders. The AIA exempted ...

Holding Supporters Of Terrorism Accountable: The Exercise Of General Jurisdiction Over The Pa And Plo In A Post-Daimler Framework, Mark D. Christopher

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

"Your Honor What I Meant To State Was . . .": A Comparative Analysis Of The Judicial And Evidentiary Admission Doctrines As Applied To Counsel Statements In Pleadings, Open Court, And Memoranda Of Law, Ediberto Roman

Ediberto Roman

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Andrew Horwitz's Blog: First Amendment Protects The Right To Give And To Receive 05-23-2017, Andrew Horwitz

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: As Manning Released, Trial Attorney Coombs Looks Back On Case, Looks Forward To Teaching Again At Rwu Law 05-17-2017, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Lead Plaintiffs And Their Lawyers: Mission Accomplished, Or More To Be Done?, Adam C. Pritchard, Stephen Choi

Law & Economics Working Papers

This chapter, written for the Research Handbook on Shareholder Litigation, surveys empirical work studying the lead plaintiff provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA). That work finds that the lead plaintiff provision has encouraged institutional investors to participate in securities class actions and that those institutional investors have negotiated lower attorneys' fees. Those benefits from the lead plaintiff provision are undercut, however, by political contributions made by plaintiffs' lawyers. We suggest additional reforms to promote transparency and competition among lawyers for lead plaintiffs. We also suggest reforms to the lead plaintiff provision intended to enhance the screening effect ...

Lex Punit Mendacium: Punitive Damages And Bhasin V Hrynew, Eric Andrews

Western Journal of Legal Studies

Punitive damages are a controversial remedy in Canadian and non-Canadian law. Some scholars have gone so far as to argue that punitive damages are entirely inconsistent with the goals and principles of private law and ought to be abolished. Notwithstanding these criticisms, the Supreme Court of Canada has treated punitive damages as a relatively uncontroversial private law remedy. However, the circumstances under which a court will consider awarding punitive damages have evolved with recent Supreme Court decisions. One example is the introduction of the independent actionable wrong requirement in Vorvis v Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. The independent actionable wrong ...

Error Costs, Legal Standards Of Proof And Statistical Significance, Michelle Burtis, Jonah B. Gelbach, Bruce H. Kobayashi

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship between legal standards of proof and thresholds of statistical significance is a well-known and studied phenomena in the academic literature. Moreover, the distinction between the two has been recognized in law. For example, in Matrix v. Siracusano, the Court unanimously rejected the petitioner’s argument that the issue of materiality in a securities class action can be defined by the presence or absence of a statistically significant effect. However, in other contexts, thresholds based on fixed significance levels imported from academic settings continue to be used as a legal standard of proof. Our positive analysis demonstrates how a ...

Sovereignty And Social Change In The Wake Of India’S Recent Sodomy Cases, Deepa Das Acevedo

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

American constitutional law scholars have long questioned whether courts can truly drive social reform, and this uncertainty remains even in the wake of recent landmark decisions affecting the LGBT community. In contrast, court watchers in India—spurred by developments in a special type of legal action developed in the late 1970s known as public interest litigation (PIL)—have only recently begun to question the judiciary’s ability to promote progressive social change. Indian scholarship on this point has veered between despair that PIL cases no longer reliably produce good outcomes for India’s most disadvantaged and optimism that public interest ...

Weaponizing Citizen Suits: Second Circuit Revises The Burden Of Proof For Proving Sham Citizen Petitions In Apotex V. Acorda Therapeutics, Franklin Liu

Boston College Law Review

In 2016, in Apotex Inc. v. Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a generic drug company could not rely solely on the timing of the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA’s”) disposition of a citizen suit and approval of a generic application to state a claim under the Sherman Act based on sham litigation. By contrast, in 2009, in In re DDAVP Direct Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, the Second Circuit held that precisely such evidence was sufficient to state a Sherman Act claim. This Comment argues that the Second Circuit’s ...

The Role Of Strategic Attorney Behavior In The Increase In Federal Wage And Hour Litigation, Rwanda Smith, Sunmi Hirata, Monica Shen

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

May It Please The Court?: The Perils Of Correcting A Justice's Pronunciation, James J. Duane

Seton Hall Circuit Review

No abstract provided.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Donald Trump And The Full-Employment-For-Lawyers Presidency, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.