Law Commons^™

Lawyers And Decisions: A Model Of Practical Judgment, Alexander W. Scherr

Scholarly Works

What do lawyers do, and how do they think in practice? Certainly, lawyers analyze law, and apply it to facts: the law school answer. This article proposes a more fluid notion: that lawyering prompts a mindfulness associated with decision-making, a mindfulness that engages and integrates a number of different capacities. Lawyers engage in a complex and unique thought process that relies only partially on rigorous analysis of legal principle. Lawyers must also integrate non-legal and even non-conceptual realities in considering client decisions. This integration emerges from the lawyer-client relationship and flexes to the demands characteristic of lawyering tasks. Lawyering is …

Should Government Be Allowed To Recover The Costs Of Public Services From Tortfeasors?: Tort Subsidies, The Limits Of Loss Spreading, And The Free Public Services Doctrine, Timothy D. Lytton

Faculty Publications By Year

The free public services doctrine (also known as the municipal cost recovery rule) states that a government entity may not recover from a tortfeasor the costs of public services occasioned by the tortfeasor's wrongdoing. This article traces the history of the doctrine and argues for its elimination. The article criticizes case law supporting the doctrine and raises objections based on fairness, efficiency, and institutional concerns about the proper limits of judicial policy making. The article discusses the implications of eliminating the doctrine for tobacco litigation, gun litigation, and tort reform.

Opportunities For Obtaining And Using Litigation Reserves And Disclosures, Matthew J. Barrett

Journal Articles

In late 1975, the accounting and legal professions reached an accord that led to three new professional standards: (1) a new financial accounting rule for contingencies, (2) an auditing standard addressing the requirement that an auditor obtain evidence about an audit client's contingent liabilities to determine whether the client has properly treated those items in its financial statements, and (3) the American Bar Association's Statement of Policy Regarding Lawyers' Responses to Auditors' Requests for Information under that auditing standard. The Commentary that accompanied the Statement of Policy explicitly stated that the organized bar's expectation that communications between lawyers and auditors …

"Business On Trial: The True Story." Review Of Business On Trial: The Civil Jury And Corporate Responsibility, Richard O. Lempert

Reviews

Jury trials are very much an affair of stories. Lawyers tell stories to juries. Evidence is more convincing when presented in story order. Jurors use stories to make sense of evidence. And litigants, particularly losing litigants, tell stories about juries. One of the favorite stories of losing business litigants, second only to the irrational jury story, is the Robin Hood story. Juries love to play Robin Hood, to steal from the rich (businesses and insurance companies) and to give to the poor (individual litigants, especially individual tort litigants). The storytellers see no mystery here. Jurors are "little guys," like the …

Is The "Adequacy" Standard A More Political Question That The 'Equality' Standard?: The Effect Of Standards-Based Education On Judicial Standards For Education Finance Litigation, Avidan Y. Cover

Faculty Publications

This Note argues that the recent shift in state court litigation from an equality claim to one of adequacy has compelled many courts to insert themselves in the discussion and creation of educational policy that was previously viewed as unacceptable. This evolution may render courts vulnerable to appellate challenges and criticisms of nonjusticiability and political question doctrine violations regarding institutional competence and judicial prudence. In addition, the demise of the equality argument diminishes the moral strength of the court's normative valuation capacity. Section I examines the history of education finance cases and reviews the three waves of litigation strategies, which …

What Bush V. Gore Means For Elections In The 21st Century, Helen Norton

Publications

No abstract provided.

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.

Comparative Forum Non Conveniens And The Hague Judgments Convention, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

This article begins with a discussion of the application of the forum non conveniens doctrine in four common law legal systems. It then briefly notes related concepts applied in the courts of two civil law systems. This discussion is followed in Part IV by a brief history of the negotiations at the Hague Conference on Private International Law for a Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters and a review of Articles 21 and 22 of the Interim Text of that Convention created at the June 2001 portion of the Diplomatic Conference. This review allows conclusions …

Hired Guns And Smoking Guns: Mccabe V British American Tobacco Australia Ltd, Camille Cameron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Significant ethical and procedural issues raised in the case of McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd - history of events leading to the Supreme Court of Victoria decision, particularly the implementation of the controversial 'Document Retention Policy' - procedural issues, including the role and purpose of discovery, nature of the striking out remedy and extent to which the adversarial system might be to blame for some of the conduct of the defence and its solicitors - ethical issues raised in the case - close links between American and Australian tobacco litigation and the influence of American tobacco lawyers …

Introduction: Favorite Insurance Cases Symposium, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Insurance law scholars and teachers sometimes feel, with a mixture of paranoia and justification, that insurance law simply does not receive its proper respect in the hierarchy of legal education and law generally.

Consider the law school curriculum. In none of America’s nearly 200 ABA-approved law schools in insurance law a required course. Nor is it considered a course that, although not required, prudent students “must” be sure to take before they graduate (e.g. Evidence, Corporations). Enrollments may be respectable but the class is seldom oversubscribed, even where the law school is located in an insurance hub city. Although other …

Timeless And Ahead Of Its Time: Lach's V. Fidelity & Casualty Of New York, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The publication of Judge Keeton's important article “inventing” the reasonable expectations doctrine in 1971 is notable for infusing a good deal of intellectual energy into the study of insurance law, particularly judicial decisions about insurance coverage. Keeton's article, which deduced from cases the principle that courts tended to interpret policies to vindicate the objectively reasonable expectations of the insured, has rightly been viewed as a milestone. It clarified an area of law long seen as inconsistent or result-oriented. It spurred additional important scholarship in the area and elevated insurance caselaw from something of a backwater to at least a respectable …

Procedural Justice Research And The Paucity Of Trials, Chris Guthrie

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Professor Deborah Hensler tells an important cautionary tale about mandatory mediation in her thoughtful and provocative contribution to this volume. In Suppose It's Not True: Challenging Mediation Ideology, Hensler observes that courts are now requiring litigants to mediate civil cases "on the grounds that litigants prefer [mediation] to traditional litigation," yet there is "a long line of social psychological research on individuals' evaluations of different dispute resolution procedures" consistent with the "idea that litigants might prefer adversarial litigation and adjudication" to mediation.' Hensler acknowledges that "some experimental research has found that subjects prefer mediation," but she argues that "the empirical …

Human Rights, Civil Wrongs And Foreign Relations: A "Sinical" Look At The Use Of U.S. Litigation To Address Human Rights Abuses Abroad, Jacques Delisle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Federal Class Action Reform In The United States: Past And Future And Where Next?, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

Predicting the likely future developments in class action practice in the federal courts of the United States must begin in the past.

Don't Believe Everything You Think: Cognitive Bias In Legal Decision Making, Ian Weinstein

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the role of cognitive bias in legal decision making. Drawing on research in cognitive science and law, it explores the impact of cognitive bias on both lawyers and clients. These often subtle mental biases can lead to pervasive errors in decision making by causing us to ignore important information and make inaccurate predictions. They may lead a client to underestimate the risk of litigation. They may also lead a lawyer to miscategorize a client's value choice as a misjudgement of fact. The article offers illustrative stories of the impact of bias on both client and lawyer and …

Using Dispute System Design Methods To Promote Good-Faith Participation In Court-Connected Mediation Programs, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article discusses what can be done to promote productive behavior in mediation and reduce bad conduct. Although most participants do not abuse the mediation process, some people use mediation to drag out litigation, gain leverage for later negotiations, and generally wear down the opposition. Rules requiring good-faith participation are likely to be ineffective and possibly counterproductive. This article proposes using dispute system design principles to develop policies satisfying the interests of stakeholders in court-connected mediation programs. After outlining important interests of key stakeholder groups, including litigants, attorneys, courts, and mediators, the Article describes specific policies that could satisfy their …

Practicing "In The Interests Of Justice" In The Twenty-First Century: Pursuing Peace As Justice, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In these comments I suggest that in our current world, both international and domestic, practicing "in the interests of justice" includes-indeed, should give great priority to-the "peace-seeking" and "problem solving" aspects of lawyering. I continue to see this as counter-cultural to the more common practices of lawyers who are argumentative, persuasive and articulate debaters, who believe fervently and vigorously that seeking justice, on behalf of a client or cause, means advocating for and "winning" a legal claim. To the contrary, seeking peace for parties (and, indeed, nation-states) in conflict, searching for consensus solutions to seemingly intractable public policy and legal …

The Rule That Isn't A Rule - The Business Judgment Rule, Douglas M. Branson

Articles

On a doctrinal basis, few areas of corporate law are more confused then the duty of care applicable to corporate officials and its handmaiden, the business judgment rule. The tendency of many scholars and practitioners has been to collapse the duty of care into the business judgment rule, as Professor Stuart Cohn pointed out more than a decade ago. The business judgment rule is a separate legal construct that is related to, but separate from, the duty of care and one which protects only proactive and not somnambulant directors and officers. The business judgment rule stays at center stage for …

A Novel Approach To Mass Tort Class Actions: The Billion Dollar Settlement In The Sulzer Artificial Hip And Knee Litigation: A Symposium, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

As you know our primary focus today is on the Sulzer knee and hip replacement class action. My remarks are intended to place this fascinating and innovative case in the larger context of the many issues that we all face as participants in our modern civil justice system. I am going to do this by briefly refreshing your recollection as to the procedural requirements for modern class actions, describing the ongoing controversy surrounding use of these procedures, and touching on reform efforts currently underway. I will then provide a short introduction to the Sulzer litigation and introduce each panelist.

Lawyers On The Auction Block: Evaluation And Selection Of Class Counsel By Auction, Jill E. Fisch

All Faculty Scholarship

The lead counsel auction has attracted increasing attention. Auction advocates argue that auctions introduce competitive market forces that improve the selection and compensation of class counsel. The benefits of the auction, the;' claim, include lower legal fees and better representation. Careful scrutiny reveals that auction advocates have overlooked substantial methodological problems with the design and implementation of the lead counsel auction. Even if these problems were overcome, the auction procedure is flawed: Auctions are poor tools for selecting firms based on multiple criteria, compromise the judicial role, and are unlikely to produce reasonable fee awards. Although the existing record is …

The Roles Of Litigation, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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.

Keeping Cross-Examination Under Control, J. Alexander Tanford

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

When Litigation Is Not The Only Way: Consensus Building And Mediation As Public Interest Lawyering, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

British social philosopher Stuart Hampshire recently articulated the fundamental and foundational principles of the modem conflict resolution movement (and I do call it a movement). He asserted that, "there will always be a plurality of different and incompatible conceptions of the good and there cannot be a single comprehensive and consistent theory of human virtue. Correspondingly, "our political enmities in the city or state will never come to an end while we have diverse life stories and diverse imaginations.'' Hampshire, a socially progressive, socialist philosopher hoped to articulate universal conceptions of the good. In his lifetime of reflection on this …

Civil Litigation From Litigants' Perspectives: What We Know And What We Don't Know About The Litigation Experience Of Individual Litigants, Tamara Relis

Scholarly Works

This study of the entire phenomenon of civil litigation commenced with the sole aim of ascertaining the extant gaps in the available knowledge about litigation from the perspectives of those who are by far affected most by it: the litigants. What does litigation mean for those who are directly embroiled and whose lives may consequently be radically transformed? Serious lacunas exist. However, extensive readings worldwide throughout the research process result in a stark elucidation of an overlooked, yet crucially important and somewhat egregious state of affairs, making surprisingly clear just how pernicious litigation is for the average 'nonrepeat player'.