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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fee-Shifting Statutes And Compensation For Risk, Maureen S. Carroll Jun 2020

Fee-Shifting Statutes And Compensation For Risk, Maureen S. Carroll

Articles

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 fee shifting statutes, contingent percentage fees, common-fund awards, alternative fee arrangements, and third-party litigation …


Culture As A Structural Problem In Indigent Defense, Eve Brensike Primus Jan 2016

Culture As A Structural Problem In Indigent Defense, Eve Brensike Primus

Articles

In Part I, I will describe the ways in which today's right-to-counsel challenges are similar to and different from those that faced the writers of the 1961 symposium. I will also explain in more detail why the structural conditions of criminal defense work to create (and, to some extent, always have created) a cultural problem in indigent defense delivery systems across the country. In Part II, I will discuss why I believe that we are, once again, facing a moment for potential reform, albeit reform that is different in scope and kind from that which was possible in the 1960s. …


Late-Night Law Firms, Scott Hershovitz Jan 2013

Late-Night Law Firms, Scott Hershovitz

Reviews

But it turns out that those late-night lawyers may not deserve the scorn that they get. In Sunlight and Settlement Mills, Nora Freeman Engstrom argues that firms like the ones that advertise late at night have developed practice models that achieve many of the aims that reformers have for no-fault accident compensation schemes. They deliver compensation cheaply and quickly, because they settle almost every claim and nearly never go to court. They resolve claims predictably and consistently, on account of cozy relationships with insurance adjusters that lead to a shared sense as to what different sorts of claims are …


The Landscape Of The Legal Professions In Europe And The Usa: Continuity And Change, Xiaomeng Zhang Jan 2013

The Landscape Of The Legal Professions In Europe And The Usa: Continuity And Change, Xiaomeng Zhang

Law Librarian Scholarship

Overall, all articles in the book are thoroughly researched, documented, and presented with in-depth scholarly analyses. Although it is entitled The Landscape of the Legal Professions in the Europe and the USA, the European focus is apparent and dominant. On the other hand, comparative methodology is employed in most of the articles, either through a comparison of Europe nations and the United States, or through comparisons and contrasts among European countries. It will be of invaluable assistance to scholars interested in legal professions and legal system specifically and foreign and comparative law in general. It will be a great addition …


The Illusory Right To Counsel, Eve Brensike Primus Jan 2011

The Illusory Right To Counsel, Eve Brensike Primus

Articles

Imagine a woman wrongly accused of murdering her fianc6. She is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, she faces a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Her family scrapes together enough money to hire two attorneys to represent her at trial. There is no physical evidence connecting her to the murder, but the prosecution builds its case on circumstantial inferences. Her trial attorneys admit that they were so cocky and confident that she would be acquitted that they did not bother to investigate her case or file a single pre-trial motion. Rather, they waived the …


Structural Reform In Criminal Defense: Relocating Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims, Eve Brensike Primus Jan 2007

Structural Reform In Criminal Defense: Relocating Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Claims, Eve Brensike Primus

Articles

This Article suggests a structural reform that could solve two different problems in criminal defense representation. The first problem is that the right to effective trial counsel lacks a meaningful remedy. Defendants are generally not permitted to raise ineffective assistance of counsel claims until collateral review. Given that collateral review typically occurs years after trial, most convicted defendants have completed their sentences by that time and therefore have little incentive to pursue ineffectiveness claims. Moreover, there is no right to counsel on collateral review, and it is unrealistic to expect defendants to navigate the complicated terrain of an ineffectiveness claim …


Abuse Prevention 2005, James J. White Jan 2006

Abuse Prevention 2005, James J. White

Articles

Today I do not debate the empirical question (what is the cause of the increase in bankruptcy filings?) nor do I address the buried moral question (who deserves the protection of bankruptcy law?). Rather, I speculate about the consequences of 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code and about the reasons it will achieve or fail to achieve the goals of its sponsors. Along the way I hope to learn something about how law changes, or fails to change behavior.


We Could Pass A Law...What Might Happen If Contingent Legal Fees Were Banned, Samuel R. Gross Jan 1998

We Could Pass A Law...What Might Happen If Contingent Legal Fees Were Banned, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

This is an exercise in fantasy. My task is to imagine what would happen if we simply abolished the institution of the contingent fee by statute. I cannot justify that task on grounds of urgency. Contingent fees are not about to be abolished, and they probably.are not going to be seriously restricted. My hope is that the exercise will be amusing in itself, and that in the process we might learn something about contingent fees as we now use them.


Crafting An Advocate For A Child: In Support Of Legislation Redefining The Role Of The Guardian Ad Litem In Michigan Child Abuse And Neglect Cases, Albert E. Hartmann Oct 1997

Crafting An Advocate For A Child: In Support Of Legislation Redefining The Role Of The Guardian Ad Litem In Michigan Child Abuse And Neglect Cases, Albert E. Hartmann

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Michigan's current statutory system leaves the role of the child's attorney unclear. In this Note, Hartmann advocates the adoption of a legislative proposal that will redefine the role of the child's attorney. The proposal specifies that the child's primary legal representative should be a guardian ad litem who will represent the best interests of the child. Hartmann begins by describing the current system and then analyzes how the proposal will modify the role of the child's attorney. Hartmann argues that the proposed changes would be highly beneficial and identifies specific points of improvement. Hartmann concludes by suggesting several reforms to …


Representation Of Claimants At Unemployment Compensation Proceedings: Identifying Models And Proposed Solutions, Maurice Emsellem, Monica Halas Jan 1996

Representation Of Claimants At Unemployment Compensation Proceedings: Identifying Models And Proposed Solutions, Maurice Emsellem, Monica Halas

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Emsellem and Halas posit that claimants need representation at unemployment compensation proceedings. Evaluating statistical and survey data, the authors find that representation significantly improves a claimant's chance of receiving unemployment compensation. Improved recovery rates, they argue, benefit not only claimants but also society. The authors analyze the factors inducing employer appeals of compensation awards. They also review the systemic issues that accompany the provision of representation to those unable to afford it or to those unfamiliar with the unemployment compensation process. Finally, the authors present models of expanding claimant representation.


Professional Responsibility And Choice Of Law: A Client-Based Alternative To The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Colin Owyang Jan 1995

Professional Responsibility And Choice Of Law: A Client-Based Alternative To The Model Rules Of Professional Conduct, Colin Owyang

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Because of the increasingly interstate nature of legal practice during the past few decades, practitioners licensed in multiple jurisdictions have been forced more frequently to confront choice-of-law dilemmas in the area of professional responsibility. Although most states have adopted fairly uniform regulations on professional ethics, only the recently amended American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct contain a specific provision that addresses the choice-of-law problem in the professional responsibility context. This Note outlines certain ethical considerations facing the multistate practitioner and argues that the choice-of-law provision in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides insufficient clarity and predictability where …


Liberalizing International Trade In Legal Services: A Proposal For An Annex On Legal Services Under The General Agreement On Trade In Services, Michael J. Chapman, Paul J. Tauber Jan 1995

Liberalizing International Trade In Legal Services: A Proposal For An Annex On Legal Services Under The General Agreement On Trade In Services, Michael J. Chapman, Paul J. Tauber

Michigan Journal of International Law

The legal services industry is experiencing a fundamental transformation. Thirty years ago, legal markets were almost exclusively national; today, a global legal market is emerging and evolving at a considerable pace. Unfortunately, further globalization is hindered by the failure of national regulatory systems to respond effectively. Globalization has made domestic regulation more difficult because it increases the complexity of the interactions between lawyers, the legal system, and the authorities responsible for regulating the legal profession. As the process of globalization has blurred the distinction between national and international legal issues, an international regulatory regime governing transnational legal practice has become …


The Best Of Times, John W. Reed Jan 1987

The Best Of Times, John W. Reed

Other Publications

As an academic I have occasion to visit from time to time with a wide variety of lawyers, lawyers of many types and interests: with plaintiffs' lawyers, defense counsel, insurance lawyers, house counsel; with lawyers who deal in family law, banking and corporate lawyers, anti-trust lawyers, legal aid lawyers; and on and on. And no matter whom I meet with, no matter what kind of practice or specialty, the one common theme I encounter in those discussions is concern about change, and the rate of change. Change in the applicable law itself. Change in the way that kind of law …


Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider Apr 1986

Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider

Michigan Law Review

A Review of In the Interest of Children: Advocacy, Law Reform, and Public Policy by Robert H. Mnookin, Robert A. Burt, David L. Chambers, Michael S. Wald, Stephen D. Sugarman, Franklin E. Zimring, and Rayman L. Solomon


The War On Diversity, John W. Reed Jan 1983

The War On Diversity, John W. Reed

Other Publications

Over the past decade or more there have been strong pressures to abolish the diversity jurisdiction of the federal courts. With the strong backing of the prestigious American Law Institute and many scholars, and with the support of the Chief Justice, Senator Kennedy, and others, specific proposals have been introduced in Congress, have been discussed at enormous length, and have passed one or the other House but not both. At the moment, therefore, we still have diversity jurisdiction, and it is safe to predict that abolition of diversity will not occur during the present session of Congress. Nevertheless, the long-term …


Legal Imperialism: American Lawyers And Foreign Aid In Latin America, Michigan Law Review Mar 1982

Legal Imperialism: American Lawyers And Foreign Aid In Latin America, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Legal Imperialism: American Lawyers and Foreign Aid in Latin America by James A. Gardner


Tenant's Attorney: Evaluation Of Impact, Ronald D. Glotta Dec 1968

Tenant's Attorney: Evaluation Of Impact, Ronald D. Glotta

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The natural question raised by the passage of "Tenant Rights" legislation is whether the new law helps or hinders the practicing attorney representing tenants. In analyzing the package of Tenant Rights Bills enacted in Michigan in 1968 this article will focus on three questions: 1) whether such legislation raises false hopes in being heralded as a major declaration of rights and an effort to solve the problem of housing shortage; 2) whether such legislation actually further oppresses tenants, especially in their exercise of the one effective instrument in their power: collective action; and 3) whether such legislation significantly changes the …


Admission To The Bar, Edwin C. Goddard Feb 1918

Admission To The Bar, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

This article is written in the belief that the hour is here when some changes in admissions to the bar should be urged and urged again, when some things often thought and discussed in certain assemblies should be openly and frankly talked over with the profession at large.


Materials Of Jurisprudence, James V. Campbell Dec 1879

Materials Of Jurisprudence, James V. Campbell

Articles

This period is marked by rather more strenuous efforts than have been made before in this country, to solve the problem of condensing and simplifying the law. Our own day is peculiar in the endeavors we have seen to evolve what is claimed to be a science of jurisprudence. Some admirable writers have succeeded in dividing the domain of law into its larger or smaller fields, and have shown with more or less fulness the relative positions of these, and their mutual dependence. This is a valuable service; for all lawyers know that, without a reasonably clear perception of the …