Law Commons^™

Trial Practice And Procedure, Jason Crawford, J. Clay Fuller, Dustin T. Brown, Kate S. Cook, E. Wycliffe Orr

Mercer Law Review

This survey period included significant legislative changes and yielded several interesting and important decisions to practitioners who prepare and try cases. This Article addresses judicial opinions that cover, among other topics that interest the trial practitioner, issues of damages, discovery, products liability, torts, standing, and sovereign immunity. The Article also highlights important changes in Georgia's statutory law that significantly impact trial practice.

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 …

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 …

The Best Oral Argument I (N)Ever Made, Judith S. Kaye

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Incivility And Unprofessionalism On Appeal: Impugning The Integrity Of Judges, Steven Wisotsky

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

What's The Difference? Comparing The Advocacy Preferences Of State And Federal Appellate Judges, David Lewis

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

The Changing Meaning Of Patent Claim Terms, Mark A. Lemley

Michigan Law Review

The claims of a patent are central to virtually every aspect of patent law. The claims define the scope of the invention, and their meaning therefore determines both whether a defendant's product infringes a patent and whether the patent is valid. One of the most significant aspects of patent litigation is "claim construction," the process of defining the words of the claim in other, theoretically clearer words. Courts construe the claims of the patent by starting with the plain meaning of their terms as they would be understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art, or PHOSITA. Claim …

Fair Representation On Juries In The Eastern District Of Michigan: Analyzing Past Efforts And Recommending Future Action, Andrew J. Lievense

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note builds on past recommendations to reform jury selection systems to make juries more representative of the community. Juries representing a fair cross section of the community are both a statutory and constitutional requirement, as well as a policy goal. How a judicial district designs and implements its jury selection system is important to meeting this requirement.

Part I of this Note analyzes the history and development of the representativeness interest on juries, explains how the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan attempted to meet this interest in the 1980s and 1990s, and reports and …

Pleadings In The Age Of Settlement, Michael Moffitt

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Appellate Practice And Procedure, K. Todd Butler

Mercer Law Review

This Article reviews federal appellate procedure developments in the Eleventh Circuit during the 2004 calendar yea. As is the case each year, perhaps the most important procedural matter the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals considered was its own federal subject matter jurisdiction and that of the district courts in the Eleventh Circuit. If a matter is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts, or the federal appellate jurisdiction of the Eleventh Circuit, then the final order rule, along with the exceptions to the final order rule, dominate the consideration of whether a decision is subject to review. The …

Class Actions, Thomas M. Byrne, Suzanne M. Alford

Mercer Law Review

The year 2004 was an eventful one for the development of class action law in the Eleventh Circuit. In a series of decisions prior to 2004, the court consistently paid close attention to whether the individual issues raised by claims or defenses would predominate over any common issues and would thereby render a class action either unmanageable or unfair. For example, in Andrews v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., the court reversed an order certifying a class of millions of telephone service customers who challenged their phone carriers' 900-number participation because of the impossibility of applying the gaming laws …

Trial Practice And Procedure, John O'Shea Sullivan, Ashby L. Kent

Mercer Law Review

The 2004 survey period yielded several noteworthy decisions relating to federal trial practice and procedure, many of which concerned issues of first impression in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. This Article analyzes several recent developments in the Eleventh Circuit, including significant rulings in the areas of evidence, civil procedure, statutory interpretation, jurisdiction, as well as other issues of interest to the trial practitioner.

Are Rules Just Meant To Be Broken? The One-Year Two-Step In Tedford V. Warner- Lambert Co., E. Kyle Mcnew

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eternal Student Loan Liability: Who Can Sue Under 20 U.S.C. § 1091a?, Glenn E. Roper

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Gay Politics And Precedents, Frank B. Cross

Michigan Law Review

One can find many analyses of the development of gay rights law in America but none are so illuminating as Daniel Pinello's in his book Gay Rights and American Law. More significantly, while it offers a superb understanding of the recent record of gay rights litigation, the book provides a fine-grained and sophisticated understanding of judicial decisionmaking in this important and developing area of the law. Indeed, the value of the book for students of judicial decisionmaking even transcends its value for students of gay rights jurisprudence. Quantitative empirical studies of judicial decisionmaking, well established in political science, have …

Recusal On Appeal: An Appellate Advocate's Perspective, Howard J. Bashman

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

The Slave Redress Cases, Roy L. Brooks

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innovation Policy In Telecommunications: Revisiting The Successes Of Guglielmo Marconi, John M. Williamson

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution, Gavin Weightman, Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003, 312 pages.

A review of Gavin Weightman's Signor Marconi's Magic Box, Da Capo Press, 2003. An entertaining and informative biography of the inventor of applied wireless communications, this book also gives practical insight into the effect of patent policy on innovation. The Marconi story parallels the challenges faced by today's telecommunications innovators and offers a significant historical perspective relevant to present-day debates over the direction of innovation policy and …

Other People's Money: The Ethics Of Litigation Funding, Douglas R. Richmond

Mercer Law Review

Litigation can be expensive, sometimes incredibly expensive. There are investigators to employ, expert witnesses to compensate, court reporters to pay, documents to photocopy or electronically image, travel expenses, demonstrative evidence to create, and so on. An attorney's time itself is valuable. A party's time is also valuable, and plaintiffs who are disabled as a result of injuries they have sustained may need money to live on. As a result, a wealthy litigant, who can outspend a poorer litigant, is generally at an advantage and may be able to obtain a favorable settlement through attrition.

Rethinking Optimality In Tort Litigation: The Promis Of Reverse Cost-Shifting, Jonathan Fischbach, Michael Fischbach

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Dos And Don'ts Of Massachusetts Sentencing, Isaac Borenstein

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Brian Baggott

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

The Partnership Form In Litigation: A Case Study, Nelson P. Lovins

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

A Return To Certainty: Why Grand Jury Subpoenas Should Supersede Civil Protective Orders, Brian Baggott

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law - Physical Evidence Obtained As A Result Of Unwarned, Voluntary Statement Held Admissible Despite Failure To Issue Miranda Warnings - United States V. Patane, 124 S. Ct. 2620 (2004), Sean Tirrell

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus - Aliens Detained At The United States Naval Base In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, May Petition Federal Courts For Writs Of Habeas Corpus - Rasul V. Bush, 124 S. Ct. 2686 (2004), Rachel Rod

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Limitations On A Minor's Right To Sue For Medical Malpractice: A Constitutional Analysis, Natalie H. Mantell

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Should Unnecessary Warnings Wrap A Suspect In The Panoply Of Miranda Protections, Ann F. Walsh

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.