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Full-Text Articles in Law
Frivolous Floodgate Fears, Blair Druhan Bullock
Frivolous Floodgate Fears, Blair Druhan Bullock
Indiana Law Journal
When rejecting plaintiff-friendly liability standards, courts often cite a fear of opening the floodgates of litigation. Namely, courts point to either a desire to protect the docket of federal courts or a burden on the executive branch. But there is little empirical evidence exploring whether the adoption of a stricter standard can, in fact, decrease the filing of legal claims in this circumstance. This Article empirically analyzes and theoretically models the effect of adopting arguably stricter liability standards on litigation by investigating the context of one of the Supreme Court’s most recent reliances on this argument when adopting a stricter …
"On The Eve Of Destruction": Courts Confronting The Climate Emergency, Mary Christina Wood
"On The Eve Of Destruction": Courts Confronting The Climate Emergency, Mary Christina Wood
Indiana Law Journal
In the dim and smokey twilight, with only bare necessities in tow, a family rushes to escape the wildfire racing toward them. Elsewhere, a household evacuates just ahead of a category five hurricane, perhaps not for the first time. Along the coastlines, countless others are resigned to looking on as their homesites erode into the inexorably rising surf. At this moment, millions of Americans are forced to reckon with the horrors of the climate catastrophe, and the number of such people who now viscerally grasp our grim climate reality grows every day. Even the judges of this nation prove no …
Developments In The Laws Affecting Electronic Payments And Financial Services, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook, Tom Kierner
Developments In The Laws Affecting Electronic Payments And Financial Services, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook, Tom Kierner
Articles by Maurer Faculty
The past year proved to be a busy period for the regulation of electronic payments and financial services. In this year’s survey, we discuss rulemakings, enforcement actions, and other litigation that has significantly impacted the law governing payments and financial services. Part II addresses the ongoing fight between federal and state authorities over which should properly regulate Fin- Tech entities and describes some new steps the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) has taken to assert its authority in this area. Part III details an enforcement action that California regulators took against a FinTech company they determined had …
A Clumsy Couple: The Problem Of Applying Model Rule 1.7 In Transactional Settings, Katelyn K. Leveque
A Clumsy Couple: The Problem Of Applying Model Rule 1.7 In Transactional Settings, Katelyn K. Leveque
Indiana Law Journal
The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct (“Model Rules”) have long addressed conflicts of interest, with fluctuating degrees of stringency.1 For as long as the rules have been in place, legal scholars have grappled with how lawyers can work within the confines of the rules to serve their clients best, as well as how the rules might better align with what clients seek and expect from their legal representation. In their current form, the Model Rules address conflicts of interest in Rule 1.7. However, both this rule and the Model Rules more generally are not one size fits …
Fee-Shifting Statutes And Compensation For Risk, Maureen Carroll
Fee-Shifting Statutes And Compensation For Risk, Maureen Carroll
Indiana Law Journal
A law firm that enters into a contingency arrangement provides the client with more than just its attorneys’ labor. It also provides a form of financing, because the firm will be paid (if at all) only after the litigation ends; and insurance, because if the litigation results in a low recovery (or no recovery at all), the firm will absorb the direct and indirect costs of the litigation. Courts and markets routinely pay for these types of risk-bearing services through a range of mechanisms, including state feeshifting statutes, contingent percentage fees, common-fund awards, alternative fee arrangements, and third-party litigation funding. …
Flipping The Script On Brady, Ion Meyn
Flipping The Script On Brady, Ion Meyn
Indiana Law Journal
Brady v. Maryland imposes a disclosure obligation on the prosecutor and, for this
reason, is understood to burden the prosecutor. This Article asks whether Brady also
benefits the prosecutor, and if so, how and to what extent does it accomplish this?
This Article first considers Brady’s structural impact—how the case influenced
broader dynamics of litigation. Before Brady, legislative reform transformed civil
and criminal litigation by providing pretrial information to civil defendants but not
to criminal defendants. Did this disparate treatment comport with due process?
Brady arguably answered this question by brokering a compromise: in exchange for
imposing minor obligations on …
Analyzing Analytics: Litigation Analytics In Bloomberg Law, Westlaw Edge, And Lexis Advance, Ashley A. Ahlbrand
Analyzing Analytics: Litigation Analytics In Bloomberg Law, Westlaw Edge, And Lexis Advance, Ashley A. Ahlbrand
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Influencing Juries In Litigation "Hot Spots", Megan M. La Belle
Influencing Juries In Litigation "Hot Spots", Megan M. La Belle
Indiana Law Journal
This Article considers how corporations are using image advertising in litigation "hot spots" as a means of influencing litigation outcomes. It describes how Samsung and other companies advertised in the Eastern District of Texas--a patent litigation "hot spot"--to curry favor with the people who live there, including by sponsoring an ice rink located directly outside the courthouse. To be sure, image advertisements are constitutionally protected speech and might even warrant the highest level of protection under the First Amendment when they are not purely commercial in nature. Still, the Article argues, courts should be able to prohibit such advertisements altogether, …
The False Allure Of Settlement Pressure, Nicholas Almendares
The False Allure Of Settlement Pressure, Nicholas Almendares
Articles by Maurer Faculty
The threat of “blackmail” or “in terrorem” settlements have shaped the law, leading courts to conclude that if the plaintiff does not appear likely to win the case, then the litigation should be halted at an early stage. This Article questions the established logic of settlement pressure. After clarifying the concept and presenting the strongest case for it, I show that it cannot serve as the basis for wide-ranging civil procedure doctrines. Doing so has perverse results, such as privileging the defendant’s idiosyncratic tastes and helping corporate managers hide important facts from their shareholders. In addition, settlement pressure is not …
Screening Out Innovation: The Merits Of Meritless Litigation, Alexander A. Reinert
Screening Out Innovation: The Merits Of Meritless Litigation, Alexander A. Reinert
Indiana Law Journal
Courts and legislatures often conflate meritless and frivolous cases when balancing the desire to keep courthouse doors open to novel or unlikely claims against the concern that entertaining ultimately unsuccessful litigation will prove too costly for courts and defendants. Recently, significant procedural and substantive barriers to civil litigation have been informed by judicial and legislative assumptions about the costs of entertaining meritless and frivolous litigation. The prevailing wisdom is that eliminating meritless and frivolous claims as early in a case’s trajectory as possible will focus scarce resources on the truly meritorious cases, thereby ensuring that available remedies are properly distributed …
The Feasibility Of Litigation Markets, Jonathan T. Molot
The Feasibility Of Litigation Markets, Jonathan T. Molot
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Seeing Is Believing: The Anti-Inference Bias, Eyal Zamir Prof., Ilana Ritov, Doron Teichman
Seeing Is Believing: The Anti-Inference Bias, Eyal Zamir Prof., Ilana Ritov, Doron Teichman
Indiana Law Journal
A large body of studies suggests that people are reluctant to impose liability on the basis of circumstantial evidence alone, even when this evidence is more reliable than direct evidence. Current explanations for this pattern of behavior focus on factors such as the tendency of fact finders to assign low subjective probabilities to circumstantial evidence, the statistical nature of such evidence, and the fact that direct evidence can rule out with greater ease any competing factual theory regarding liability. This Article describes a set of four new experiments demonstrating that even when these factors are controlled for, the disinclination to …
Redeeming A Lost Generation: "The Year Of Law School Litigation" And The Future Of The Law School Transparency Movement, Andrew S. Murphy
Redeeming A Lost Generation: "The Year Of Law School Litigation" And The Future Of The Law School Transparency Movement, Andrew S. Murphy
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Section 1983 Wrongful Death And Survival Actions In The Seventh Circuit: An Indiana Litigant's Guide To Claims After Russ V. Watts, Michelle R. Gough
Section 1983 Wrongful Death And Survival Actions In The Seventh Circuit: An Indiana Litigant's Guide To Claims After Russ V. Watts, Michelle R. Gough
Indiana Law Journal
The availability of survival and wrongful death damages in 42 U.S.C. § 1983 cases is an area that involves both changing precedent and unaddressed issues within the Seventh Circuit. In both of the aforementioned types of claims, the cases will necessarily involve the tangled application of both state and federal law, and the Seventh Circuit and other federal courts of appeals have struggled to provide a clear, coherent approach to these issues. Indeed, there is strong disagreement among the circuits. Dean Steven H. Steinglass offered the most comprehensive discussion of the nature of both types of claims under § 1983 …
Representing The Media At Trial, Joseph A. Tomain, Richard M. Goehler, Amanda G. Main
Representing The Media At Trial, Joseph A. Tomain, Richard M. Goehler, Amanda G. Main
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Do Attorneys Do Their Clients Justice? An Empirical Study Of Lawyers' Effects On Tax Court Litigation Outcomes, Leandra Lederman, Warren B. Hrung
Do Attorneys Do Their Clients Justice? An Empirical Study Of Lawyers' Effects On Tax Court Litigation Outcomes, Leandra Lederman, Warren B. Hrung
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Do attorneys really add value or can unrepresented parties achieve equivalent results? This fundamental question ordinarily is difficult to answer empirically. An equally important question both for attorneys and the justice system is whether attorneys prolong disputes or instead facilitate expeditious resolution of cases.
Fortunately, there is a federal court that provides an excellent laboratory in which to test and answer these questions. In the United States Tax Court (Tax Court), where most federal tax cases are litigated, the government always is represented by Internal Revenue Service attorneys but a large portion of the taxpayer litigants proceed pro se. In …
Lashing Reason To The Mast: Understanding Judicial Constraints On Emotion In Personal Injury Litigation, Jody L. Madeira
Lashing Reason To The Mast: Understanding Judicial Constraints On Emotion In Personal Injury Litigation, Jody L. Madeira
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Arguing from the premise that personal injury plaintiffs and injury evidence do not taint proceedings by encouraging jurors to adjudicate based on emotion rather than evidence, this article reviews and challenges judicial attempts to constrain jurors' emotive responses to an injured plaintiff in three areas of personal injury litigation: voir dire, admissibility of evidence, and restrictions on damages arguments and assessment. The judicial abhorrence of sympathy as a ground for substantive decision making during some phases of the trial clashes with judicial tolerance of the emotion during others, giving rise to a pattern of sympathy in, sympathy out where the …
The Ethics Of Evidence, J. Alexander Tanford
The Ethics Of Evidence, J. Alexander Tanford
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Professor J. Alexander Tanford offers a unique perspective on the ethics of evidence, illustrated by examples of his own personal experiences as well as excerpts from film and literature. This Article is a must read for any litigator as it addresses the issue of where the line is to be drawn regarding evidence in the courtroom.
So Help Me God: A Comparative Study Of Religious Interest Group Litigation, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Kevin R. Den Dulk
So Help Me God: A Comparative Study Of Religious Interest Group Litigation, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Kevin R. Den Dulk
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
The Fcc’S Implementation Of The 1996 Act: Agency Litigation Strategies And Delay, Rebecca Beynon
The Fcc’S Implementation Of The 1996 Act: Agency Litigation Strategies And Delay, Rebecca Beynon
Federal Communications Law Journal
Since it began promulgating rules to implement the local competition provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC has been under attack in the courts. The road has been a rough one, and the Commission has lost on a good many issues. The Commission has regularly accused its opponents in these legal battles-chiefly the incumbent local exchange carriers-of using litigation to impede the implementation of the 1996 Act’s local competition provisions. As discussed in this Article, if litigation has in fact slowed the introduction of competition in the local exchange markets, the Commission itself must share some of the …
Which Cases Go To Trial?: An Empirical Study Of Predictors Of Failure To Settle, Leandra Lederman
Which Cases Go To Trial?: An Empirical Study Of Predictors Of Failure To Settle, Leandra Lederman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Precedent Lost: Why Encourage Settlement, And Why Permit Non-Party Involvement In Settlements?, Leandra Lederman
Precedent Lost: Why Encourage Settlement, And Why Permit Non-Party Involvement In Settlements?, Leandra Lederman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
How U.S. Procedure Skews Tort Law Incentives, Jonathan T. Molot
How U.S. Procedure Skews Tort Law Incentives, Jonathan T. Molot
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Power And Legal Artifice: The Federal Class Action, Bryant Garth
Power And Legal Artifice: The Federal Class Action, Bryant Garth
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Using case studies and interviews with lawyers and representatives in class actions, this article explores the contribution that class actions make to their ostensible beneficiaries. The article first distinguishes the major types of class actions in terms of the roles of lawyers and class representatives, ranging from very passive representatives to individuals intensively involved with the dispute that gave rise to the litigation. The article next seeks to evaluate the class actions. On the basis of the results of the class actions, the article finds that class actions cannot be proclaimed major contributors to social change. The focus on results, …
Book Review. This Week On The Talk Shows: The Litigation Explosion, J. Alexander Tanford
Book Review. This Week On The Talk Shows: The Litigation Explosion, J. Alexander Tanford
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Viva Zapata!: Toward A Rational System Of Forum-Selection Clause Enforcement In Diversity Cases, Leandra Lederman
Viva Zapata!: Toward A Rational System Of Forum-Selection Clause Enforcement In Diversity Cases, Leandra Lederman
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
The Case In Support Of Legislation Facilitating The Consolidation Of Mass-Accident Litigation: A View From The Legislature, Charles G. Geyh, Robert W. Kastenmeier
The Case In Support Of Legislation Facilitating The Consolidation Of Mass-Accident Litigation: A View From The Legislature, Charles G. Geyh, Robert W. Kastenmeier
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Blind Man's Bluff: An Analysis Of The Discovery Of Expert Witnesses Under Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 26(B)(4) And A Proposed Amendment, Mathew R. Wildermuth
Blind Man's Bluff: An Analysis Of The Discovery Of Expert Witnesses Under Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 26(B)(4) And A Proposed Amendment, Mathew R. Wildermuth
Indiana Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Lawyers And Involuntary Clients: Attorney Fees From Funds, John P. Dawson
Lawyers And Involuntary Clients: Attorney Fees From Funds, John P. Dawson
Addison Harris Lecture
No abstract provided.
The Contingent Fee Contract In Massachusetts, Kenneth B. Hughes
The Contingent Fee Contract In Massachusetts, Kenneth B. Hughes
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.