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Civil Procedure

Selected Works

2013

Pleading

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Twombly Is The Logical Extension Of The Mathews V. Eldridge Test To Discovery, Andrew Blair-Stanek May 2013

Twombly Is The Logical Extension Of The Mathews V. Eldridge Test To Discovery, Andrew Blair-Stanek

Andrew Blair-Stanek

The Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly has baffled and mystified both practitioners and scholars, casting aside the well-settled rule for evaluating motions to dismiss in favor of an amorphous “plausibility” standard. This Article argues that Twombly was not revolutionary but simply part of the Court’s ever-expanding application of the familiar three-factor Mathews v. Eldridge test. Misused discovery can deprive litigants of property and liberty interests, and in some cases Mathews requires the safeguard of dismissing the complaint. This Article’s insight explains Twombly’s origins and structure, while also suggesting a source for lower courts to draw …


Courts Should Apply A Relatively More Stringent Pleading Threshold To Class Actions, Matthew Lawrence Dec 2012

Courts Should Apply A Relatively More Stringent Pleading Threshold To Class Actions, Matthew Lawrence

Matthew B. Lawrence

Policymakers from Senator Edward Kennedy to Civil Rules Advisory Committee Reporter Edward Cooper have proposed that class actions be subject to a more stringent pleading threshold than individually-filed suits, yet the question has not been fully explored in legal scholarship. This Article addresses that gap. It shows that courts following the guidance of Bell Atlantic v. Twombly should apply a relatively more stringent pleading threshold to class actions, and a relatively less stringent threshold to individually-filed suits.

This contribution is set forth in two steps. First, this Article explains that, all else being equal, the anticipated systems’ costs and benefits …