Law Commons^™

Adversary Breakdown And Judicial Role Confusion In “Small Case” Civil Justice, Jessica K. Steinberg

BYU Law Review

This Article calls attention to the breakdown of adversary procedure in a largely unexplored area of the civil justice system: the ordinary, twoparty case. The twenty-first century judge confronts an entirely new state of affairs in presiding over the average civil matter. In place of the adversarial party contest, engineered and staged by attorneys, judges now face the rise of an unrepresented majority unable to propel claims, facts, and evidence into the courtroom. The adversary ideal favors a passive judge, but the unrealistic demands of such a paradigm in today’s “small case” civil justice system have sparked role confusion among …