Law Commons^™

Daubert And The Quest For Value-Free "Scientific Knowledge" In The Courtroom, Alexander Morgan Capron

University of Richmond Law Review

In a world that grows more technologically complex every day and in which scientific research continually expands both our understanding of, and our questions about, the operation of the natural and man-made world, it is hardly surprising that science should show up with increasing frequency in our court-rooms. Science itself is sometimes at issue, for example, in proceedings on allegations of scientific misconduct or in disputes over the ownership or patentability of technologies. But more frequently, science enters in aid of resolving a case in which a complex question of causation is at issue. To establish or rebut causation, each …

Paying Physicians More To Do Less: Financial Incentives To Limit Care, David Orentlicher

University of Richmond Law Review

As the explosion in health care costs has led to serious ef- forts at cost containment, concerns have been raised that some of the methods used to contain costs may cause more harm than good. In particular, many commentators have criticized the practice of giving physicians personal financial incentives to limit the provision of care to their patients. These critics have argued that, if physicians are paid more to do less, patients will suffer harm from undertreated illness, and patient trust in the patient-physician relationship will be seriously compromised. Accordingly, it is argued, financial incentives for physicians to limit care …

Accommodating Spouses: Regulation B And Revised Article 3- The Suretyship Law Complication, Sarah Howard Jenkins

University of Richmond Law Review

Congress enacted the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974 to insure fairness and impartiality in the extension of credit. Congress found that economic stability and competition among financial institutions would be enhanced if credit decisions were made without discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status. The Act and its implementing regulation, Regulation B, were designed "to promote the availability of credit for all creditworthy applicants without regard to... marital status" and to prohibit practices that discriminate on that basis. Later, the scope of the Act was extended to include other classes of discrimination such as race, color, religion, …

The Parental Tort Immunity Doctrine: Is It A Defensible Defense?, Sandra L. Haley

University of Richmond Law Review

If the overriding purpose of tort law is to compensate those injured by the wrongdoing of another, then intrafamily tort immunities have historically defeated that purpose. Their effect is to leave an uncompensated injured party with no remedy simply by virtue of the tortfeasor's familial relationship to the injured person. This survey focuses on the doctrine of parental tort immunity and concludes that, although numerous exceptions exist, the rationales advanced for the doctrine's continued existence are of questionable relevance today.

"The Harvest Is Plentiful, But The Laborers Are Few": Hiring Practices And Religiously Affiliated Universities, Robert John Araujo

University of Richmond Law Review

This is a paper with a modest goal about an immodest topic: how mankind does God's work in this world. In particular, I address a small part of this rather large question: how do religiously affiliated schools make their modest contribution to this work? More particularly, who gets chosen to be a laborer in bringing in the plentiful harvest. The laborer is the teacher or administrator, the vineyard is the religiously affiliated university or college of the late twentieth century United States. Consequently, I address employment practices: who gets hired as a laborer and by what criteria is this special …

An Unsuccessful Attempt To Restore Justice George Sutherland's Tarnished Reputation: A Review Essay, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

Justice George Sutherland (1862-1942) is the subject and hero of Professor Hadley Arkes's laudatory new biography. Arkes portrays Sutherland as a judge "who had found the ground of [his] jurisprudence in 'natural rights." Although history has not treated the Justice kindly, Arkes attempts to reverse history's verdict.

Standards Of Judicial Review In The Virginia Administrative Process Act, Mary Renae Carter

University of Richmond Law Review

Section 9-6.14:17 of the Virginia Administrative Process Act sets forth two standards by which courts may review the validity of a state agency's decisions. In formal rulemaking and adjudicatory proceedings, the statute requires an agency to keep a record of all evidence it receives and to make decisions based on this record. Upon review, a court will look to see if there is "substantial evidence" in the record to support the agency's findings of fact. In informal rulemaking and adjudicatory proceedings, the statute does not require an agency to keep an evidentiary record. If the agency has not voluntarily made …

Novak V. Commonwealth: Are Virginia Courts Providing Special Protection To Virginia's Juvenile Defendants?, Ellen R. Fulmer

University of Richmond Law Review

On March 9, 1991, Shawn Paul Novak was charged with the murder of two young boys, Daniel Grier, age nine, and Christopher Weaver, age seven. The boys had disappeared on March 4 and their bodies were found the next day after an extensive search. The police inquiry into the murders led to the questioning of a number of people, including Shawn, then age sixteen. Shawn was questioned on four separate occasions. At no time prior to, during, or after any of these questioning sessions was Shawn read his Mirandawarnings which specify the rights to which he was entitled under the …

The Twilight Of Land-Use Controls: A Paradigm Shift?, Charles M. Haar

University of Richmond Law Review

The subject chosen for this discussion is both timely and thought-provoking: the status and future of land-use regulations in the United States. In the hope of making the issues subsumed under this title as exciting to the general public as they are to the practitioners, Professor Michael Allan Wolf has taken the monumental Euclid decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1926 as the pivot of our deliberations. He has posed the question most dramatically with overtones of a swelling Wagnerian overture: "Is It The Twilight of Environmental and Land-Use Regulation?"

Life, Liberty & Whose Property?: An Essay On Property Rights, Loren A. Smith

University of Richmond Law Review

This essay explores the place that the concept of property rights occupies in our constitutional system. The word "property" has been used in a number of ways in the history of our Republic.

Transportation Conformity And Land-Use Planning: Understanding The Inconsistencies, D. Brennen Keene

University of Richmond Law Review

Since the boom of federal environmental laws in the early 1970s, Congress, federal administrative agencies, and the states have grappled with how best to obtain the lofty goals of these laws. As evidence of this struggle, Congress has made substantial amendments to several major environmental laws on one or more occasions in order to achieve these goals, and the states have followed suit in order to keep pace with the changes on the federal level. The resulting mass of state and federal environmental laws and regulations has led to a series of complex, and often confusing, layers of laws and …

Takings In The Court Of Federal Claims: Does The Court Make Takings Policy In Hage?, Danielle M. Stager

University of Richmond Law Review

In the eleven western states, almost half of the land is federally owned and a large percentage of that federal land is used for grazing privately-owned domestic livestock. The Department of the Interior estimates that permitted grazing occurs on thirty-six percent of federal land, but this percentage is much higher in the areas containing more federal rangeland. In 1990, the eleven western states had approximately seventeen million beef cattle and 102,800 beef producers. Roughly eighteen percent of those beef producers had federal grazing permits, but in some states that percentage was much higher. For example, eighty-eight percent of the cattle …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Civil Practice And Procedure, David D. Hopper

University of Richmond Law Review

Virginia courts and the General Assembly have effected a number of changes in civil practice and procedure during the past year. This article focuses on some significant developments of interest to the general litigation attorney. Matters affecting real property and juvenile and domestic relations are treated elsewhere in this volume.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Criminal Law And Procedure, Cullen D. Seltzer

University of Richmond Law Review

This article discusses recent Virginia cases and legislative developments in the area of criminal law and procedure. The article discusses cases from April of 1995 to July of 1996 and legislative changes effective July 1, 1996. This article does not discuss federal developments. Nor does the article discuss death penalty issues, as that area of the law is sufficiently particularized that, for purposes of manageability, it falls outside the scope of this discussion.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Legal Issues Involving Children, Robert E. Shepherd Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

The past year has been exceptionally important for children and young people caught up in the legal system, both nationally and in Virginia. Beginning with the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Vernonia School District v. Acton in June of 1995, the ensuing year has seen major shifts in the administration of juvenile justice, and in Virginia's approach to abused and neglected children. The passage of major juvenile justice reform legislation and child abuse legislation in Virginia at the 1996 General Assembly session exemplifies these changes occurring in both the society's and the legal system's approaches …

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews significant recent developments in the law affecting Virginia taxation. The article is divided into six sections. Each of these sections covers the recent judicial decisions and legislative changes which have occurred over the past several years for the respective category of taxation discussed in the section. The discussion of legislative activities will generally cover the 1995 and 1996 Sessions of the Virginia General Assembly. The judicial decisions reviewed in this article are primarily from the years 1995 and 1996. The overall purpose of this article is to provide Virginia tax and general practitioners with a concise overview …

University Of Richmond Law Review Index

University of Richmond Law Review

This is the index for Volume XXX of the University of Richmond Law Review.

Fault: A Viable Means Of Re-Injuecting Responsibility In Marital Relations, Adriaen M. Morse Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

The era of marital fault being the only grounds for divorce in the United States has passed, and its passing brings few tears to the eyes of most. As evidenced by the passage above, the airing of marital fault in open court, even in the days when such practices were the norm, at times shocked the sensibilities and conscience of those who had to listen to the evidence and then issue decisions based upon it.

Conflicts And Dependant Sovereigns: Incorporating Indian Tribes Into A Conflicts Course, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Perdue describes her use of materials on Indian Tribes at the end of her Conflict of Laws course as a vehicle for examining the interrelations among choice of law, Jurisdiction, and recognition of judgments. Her goal is not to make students experts in Indian law, but rather to get students to reexamine assumptions about the nature of sovereignty and the role of choice of law, jurisdiction, and recognition of judgments as devices for recognizing and allocating governmental authority

Continuing Federal Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

I analyzed refinements in the experimentation which the Montana Federal District Court and other districts have conducted under the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) of 1990 and I assessed certain proposed legal reforms which the Republican Party included in its Contract With America in the last issue of the Montana Law Review. I reported that the Montana Federal District Court had prepared a set of local rule changes in light of the 1993 Federal Rules amendments and that the district had formally proposed those modifications for public comment. I also reported that the United States House of Representatives had passed …

The Civil Justice Reform Act Amendment Act Of 1995, Carl W. Tobias, Margaret L. Sanner

Law Faculty Publications

Four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee introduced the Civil Justice Reform Act Amendment Act of 1995 on February 23, 1995 as Congress was considering numerous aspects of the Contract With America, most relevantly the legal reforms in its ninth tenet. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Charles Grassley (RIowa), Chair of the Subcommittee on Courts and Administrative Practice, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.), the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), former Chair of the Courts and Administrative Practice Subcommittee, sponsored the legislation. Passage of the proposal by the …

Filling The Federal Courts In An Election Year, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

President Bill Clinton appointed unprecedented numbers and percentages of highly qualified female and minority lawyers to the federal bench during his initial half-term in office, substantially surpassing the records of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Jimmy Carter. The Clinton administration invoked an efficacious, uncontroversial selection process and filled a significant percentage of the 113 judicial openings that existed when it assumed office.

Some federal court observers questioned whether the Chief Executive could maintain this commendable record during his presidency's third year. More specifically, they wondered if Republican Party control of the United States Senate, which must approve nominees, and …

Ongoing Federal Civil Justice Reform In Montana, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The essay initially provides an update of pertinent developments respecting civil justice reform in the United States and in the Montana Federal District Court. The paper emphasizes the agreement of House and Senate conferees on a products liability reform measure which involves civil justice reform and the work of the Ninth Circuit Local Rules Review Committee. The essay concludes with a brief glance into the future.

Information Redlining: A List Of Selected Readings, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

In earlier essays Henry Perritt, Marvin Anderson, Gary Bass and Patrice McDermott discuss the increasing use of computers to access information through the information superhighway, the Internet and online services, the increasing reliance on electronic formats by publishers and the federal government and the continuing debate about "information redlining." They indicate that information redlining is broader than just the availability and effects of technology and enhanced online services on lower income, minority and rural communities. It also deals with what information will be available to these groups. As more and more data comes in digital form and when some information …

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Insurance Law, Beverly W. Snukals, Fiona M. Tower

University of Richmond Law Review

This article addresses the significant case decisions and statutory changes in the past year in the field of insurance. Most of the cases involved automobile insurance coverage. Other cases involved insurance agent liability, duty of good faith to third party beneficiaries, and interpretation of general liability policies. The statutory changes were minor amendments to statutes dealing with medical payments coverage and cancellation of motor vehicle insurance policies.

Patient-Psychotherapist Privilege: Acces To Clinical Records In The Tangled Web Of Repressed Memory Litigation, Elizabeth F. Loftus, John R. Paddock, Thomas F. Guernsey

University of Richmond Law Review

The 1990s promise to be an era of mental health litigation whose outcomes that some predict will dwarf the settlements awarded recently in lawsuits over sexual improprieties between psychotherapists and their patients. One expert estimates that over 17,000 claims will be filed in the next decade, with litigation costs in excess of $250 million. These new cases emerged as therapy patients began to accuse fathers and mothers, uncles and grandfathers, former neighbors and teachers, psychotherapists and countless others of sexually abusing them years ago.

Some Thoughts On Bifurcated Sentencing In Non-Capital Felony Cases In Virginia, Thomas D. Horne

University of Richmond Law Review

The punishment stage of a jury trial poses a difficult test for the conflicting attitudes and opinions of individual jurors. In the search for a mature, well-reasoned, and educated verdict, an understanding of the sentencing process by those controlling the flow of information is the best insurance against decisions which spring from passion, prejudice, and personal bias. Given recent legislative changes affecting sentencing in non-capital felony cases, such an understanding is not susceptible to hornbook solutions. This paper will attempt to put those changes in the context of existing sentencing practices and of related evidentiary issues. It is hoped that …

A Call For Public Participation In State Voluntary Remediation Programs: Strategies For Promoting Public Involvement Opportunities In Virginia, Stacie A. Craddock

University of Richmond Law Review

There is a growing environmental problem in the United States with contaminated property which is left abandoned or underused. These properties are commonly known as "brownfields."' The type or extent of the contamination may vary from site to site. The types of waste could include hazardous, solid, or petroleum waste components; and the extent of the contamination may be minimal, severe, or even unknown. In 1995, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment reported that the number of sites that currently remain contaminated are estimated to range from "tens of thousands to 450,000 sites."

Letter From The Editor, Richard P. Klau

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

What a year! While it has only been ten months since we published our first issue, the progress made in the electronic publication of legal information has been incredible. When we published in April of 1995, many wondered whether or not we would have much company in cyberspace. There were those who scoffed at our efforts, saying that using the Internet as a publication medium was little more than a gimmick.