Law Commons^™

The Anti-Plaintiff Pending Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure And The Pro-Defendant Composition Of The Federal Rulemaking Committees, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

For decades, the Civil Rules Advisory Committee (Advisory Committee) has garnered passage of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that have incrementally narrowed discovery in the service of the Advisory Committee's stated effort to combat the alleged "cost and delay" of civil litigation. More of the same are on their way to Congress now. In the classical David-and-Goliath lawsuit brought by an individual person against an institutional defendant, these pending amendments hurt David and help Goliath more than any previous round of amendments to the FRCP. The individual versus institution case, not coincidentally, is the most common …

The Civil Caseload Of The Federal District Courts, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

This Article responds to changes proposed by Congress and the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules to restrict civil lawsuits by reforming procedure. It argues that while these changes are purported to be based on empirical studies, there is no reference to actual government statistics about whether the civil caseload has grown, whether the median disposition time has increased, or whether the most prevalent types of civil cases have changed. Based on statistics published by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, this Article shows that the civil docket has actually stagnated, not exploded. It first looks at trends in …

Developing Environmental Law For All Citizens, Patricia W. Moore, Eliana S. Pereira, Gillian Duggin

Faculty Articles

On 20 May 2002, Timor-Leste became a country. Its Constitution, which came into force on 20 May 2002, is based on civil law, with many similarities to Portugal's legal system. The Constitution also laid the foundation for environmental law, which the government has been developing ever since. This overview of the development of environmental law in Timor-Leste describes the constitutional provisions that are the source of environmental law in the country; presents the policy basis for environmental law; reviews the legal instruments governing the environment that the government has adopted since 2002; introduces draft laws under consideration at the end …

Confronting The Myth Of State Court Class Action Abuses Through An Understanding Of Heuristics And A Plea For More Statistics, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court heard six cases involving class actions this term. One of these cases, Standard Fire Insurance Company v. Knowles, brought the Class Action Fairness Act to the Court for the first time. Petitioner insurance company and its numerous business-interest amici repeatedly claimed before the Court that "state court class action abuses" justified removal of the case (which was based on state law and filed in state court) to federal court.

The charge of a "flood" of "abusive state court class actions" echoed the same rhetoric that CAFA's supporters used a decade ago in their ultimately successful efforts to …

An Updated Quantitative Study Of Iqbal's Impact On 12(B)(6) Motions, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

The effect of Ashcroft v. Iqbal on pleading standards and behavior is a source of significant legal debate. This article serves as a follow-up to Professor Moore's 2010 empirical study on Iqbal's effect on courts' rulings on motions to dismiss complaints for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Professor Moore's previous study found a statistically significant increase in the likelihood that a court grants a 12(b)(6) motion with leave to amend following Iqbal. In this article, Professor Moore updates and increases the pool of cases in her database. The updated data …

The Tao Of Pleading: Do Twombly And Iqbal Matter Empirically, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

In 2007, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, sending “shockwaves” through the federal litigation bar. Seemingly without prior warning, the Court abrogated “the accepted rule that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief”—the standard for deciding 12(b)(6) motions first stated fifty years earlier in Conley v. Gibson. To replace the old rule, the Court announced a new “plausibility” standard: that a complaint …

The Effect Of Tort Reform On Tort Case Filings, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

Does so-called "tort reform" decrease tort case filings? In Texas and other states that have enacted numerous rounds of tort reform, the answer appears to be a resounding "yes," at least as of the year 2000. More recent evidence from Oklahoma supports that conclusion and provides an interesting case study within the tort reform juggernaut.

During at least the past twenty years, tort reformers have achieved substantial legislative successes and, some would argue, public relations victories. Yet their desire for more "reform" seems insatiable, and their legislative agenda rarely sleeps.

Tort reform bills bloom perennially in the Oklahoma legislature, and …

Critical Applications And Proposals For Improvement Of The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act And The Full Faith And Credit For Child Support Orders Act, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

The problems inherent in interstate child and spousal support enforcement have been lamented for at least a half century. The federal and state governments have taken numerous steps to enhance interstate establishment and collection of support. Two of the latest steps in this process were the 1992 promulgation of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act ("UIFSA") and the 1994 adoption of the federal Full Faith and Credit For Child Support Orders Act ("FFCCSOA"). The 1996 federal "welfare reform" bill' affected both of these statutes by requiring the states to pass UIFSA by January 1, 1998 and by amending FFCCSOA …