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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Law
Procedural Justice In Nonclass Aggregation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Procedural Justice In Nonclass Aggregation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Scholarly Works
Nonclass aggregate litigation is risky for plaintiffs: it falls into the gray area between individual litigation and certified class actions. Although scholars have formulated procedural protections for both extremes, the unique danger and allure posed by nonclass aggregation has been undertheorized, leaving mass tort claimants with inadequate safeguards. When hallmark features of mass torts include attenuated attorney-client relationships, numerous litigants, and the demise of adversarial legalism, the attorney-client relationship itself becomes another bargaining chip in the exchange of rights. This Article thus takes the initial steps toward advancing a cohesive theory of procedural justice in nonclass aggregation by exposing the …
Scott V. Harris And The Role Of The Jury In Constitutional Litigation, Michael Wells
Scott V. Harris And The Role Of The Jury In Constitutional Litigation, Michael Wells
Scholarly Works
Suits brought under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 to recover damages for excessive force by the police bear some resemblance to common law tort litigation, since the key Fourth Amendment issue is whether the force was 'unreasonable.' In ordinary negligence law the jury typically decides whether an actor has exercised reasonable care, even when there is no dispute as to the facts. In section 1983 litigation the federal courts are badly split on the allocation of decision making between judge and jury, sometimes even within a particular circuit. The Supreme Court recently faced the judge-jury issue in Scott v. Harris, where …
Litigating Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Litigating Groups, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Scholarly Works
Large-scale litigation, such as the Vioxx, Zyprexa, and asbestos cases, breeds conflict. Conflicts arise between attorneys and their clients (agency problems), plaintiffs and other plaintiffs (group problems), and plaintiffs' attorneys and other plaintiffs' attorneys (competition problems). Although these cases cannot be certified as class actions, they still proceed en masse to achieve economies of scale and present a credible threat to defendants. Assuming that coordinating and consolidating large-scale litigation is systemically desirable, this Article explores a new approach to removing the group and agency problems that increase aggregate litigation's costs and undermine its normative goals such as fairness, compensation, and …
The "Other" Intermediaries: The Increasingly Anachronistic Immunity Of Managing General Agents And Independent Claims Adjusters, Jeffrey W. Stempel
The "Other" Intermediaries: The Increasingly Anachronistic Immunity Of Managing General Agents And Independent Claims Adjusters, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
This article addresses the "other" intermediaries involved in the administration of insurance policies, specifically "downstream" intermediaries, who are engaged in the administration of insurance claims. The focus is on managing general agents, third-party administrators and independent contractor claims adjusters, who perform the nuts-and-bolts tasks of the insurance industry, and are generally less well compensated than commercial insurance brokers. Since these "other" intermediaries are immune from judicial claims by policyholders, they are also less incentivized to perform their duties well. The article argues that, in order to improve the claims process, the "other" intermediaries should be held accountable for their misconduct, …