Law Commons^™

The Proper Role Of After-Acquired Evidence In Employment Discrimination Litigation, Rebecca White, Robert D. Brussack

Scholarly Works

A new defense to employment discrimination claims has gained acceptance in the lower courts. Employers who allegedly have discriminated against their employees because of race, sex or age are winning judgments on the basis of after-acquired evidence of employee misconduct. The evidence is “after-acquired” in the sense that the misconduct was unknown to the employer at the time the alleged discrimination occurred but was acquired later, often through the use of discovery devices in the employee's discrimination action. Lower courts have accepted the proposition that if the employer would have discharged the plaintiff on the basis of the after-acquired evidence, …

An Intent-Based Approach To The Acceptance Of Benefits Doctrine In The Federal Courts, Benson K. Friedman

Michigan Law Review

This Note discusses the question of when federal courts should allow a party who accepts payment of a judgment subsequently to appeal the deficiency of the award. Part I examines the discrepancies currently existing in the acceptance of benefits doctrine as applied by the federal courts. Part II analogizes this issue to the law of implied-in-fact contracts and argues that accepting the benefits of a judgment should not prevent an appeal unless circumstances clearly indicate a mutual intent to settle all claims and thereby terminate litigation. Part III contends that, under the doctrine expressed in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, …

Removal And The Eleventh Amendment: The Case For District Court Remand Discretion To Avoid A Bifurcated Suit, Mitchell N. Berman

Michigan Law Review

This Note concludes that the Sixth Circuit was half right: when a civil action names both state and private defendants - what this Note terms a "mixed case" - and when the claims against private defendants arise under federal law, the district court must grant removal of the case8 and must remand the claims against the state defendant. However, this Note also observes that the Fifth Circuit probably achieved the better result. After defendants have removed a mixed case to federal court and the district court has remanded the barred claims, the dual court systems and the parties will usually …

Litigation, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Evidence, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jurors' Views Of Civil Lawyers: Implications For Courtroom Communication, Valerie P. Hans, Krista Sweigart

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In courtroom communication, lawyers play a key role. During presentations of opening statements and closing arguments, and through examination and cross-examination of witnesses, lawyers communicate the merits of the case that the jury is to decide. Yet there is surprisingly little systematic information about how jurors perceive lawyers' communication activities. This Article presents new information based upon an interview study with civil jurors about how jurors view and evaluate attorneys and their courtroom behavior. The results of this study are used to make recommendations about enhancing the effectiveness of lawyers' communications.

Life-Cycle Justice: Accommodating Just Cause And Employment At Will, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The Georgia Jury And Negligence: The View From The Trenches, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

This is the third part of a project devoted to analyzing the Georgia negligence jury. The project employed as its original point of departure the extensive Chicago Jury Study of the 1960s, directed by Chicago Law Professor Harry Kalven, Jr. That Study's immortality derives principally from its famous first premise: Meaningful evaluation of the jury system must originate from within the system itself. That premise propelled Professor Kalven through a massive national survey of trial judges. The judges' responses, under Kalven's insightful analysis, yielded an unprecedented profile of the American jury. In foundational fashion, those responses indelibly etched into legal …

Litigation, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Congressional Procedure And Statutory Interpretation, Larry Evans, Jarrell Wright, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Is The Glass Half-Empty Or Half-Full?: Reflections On The Kodak Case, George A. Hay

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Farrar V. Hobby: When Moral Victories Will Not Feed The Attorney, Seán W. Conley

Mercer Law Review

In Farrar v. Hobby, the Supreme Court granted "prevailing party" status, as required by 42 U.S.C § 1988, to those plaintiffs who are awarded only nominal damages. The Court rejected the Fifth Circuit's rationale that an award of nominal damages is a "technical" or "insignificant" victory and insufficient to allow prevailing party status.

Although the Court unanimously found that a party who is awarded nominal damages is a prevailing party, the Court split five to four as to what reasonable attorney fees would be in this case. Writing for the Court, Justice Thomas compared the relief sought to the …

Appellate Practice And Procedure, William M. Droze, Cynthia Honssinger Frank

Mercer Law Review

Appellate practice and procedure in the Eleventh Circuit during 1992, consistent with previous years, has produced a number of interesting cases and is often a reflection of the attitudes of the panel considering the appeal. In one instance, despite lacking appellate jurisdiction due to the absence of a final order, the panel invited the parties to obtain the required certification from the district court in order to perfect the appeal. In another, the panel delivered stinging criticism to the district court for creating a policy that restricted the ability of parties to file summary judgment motions.

The court expanded its …

Trial Practice And Procedure, Steven A. Miller, Kristen K. Duggan

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys the 1992 decisions of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that have significant impact upon the area of trial practice and procedure.

• Subject Matter Jurisdiction
• Personal Jurisdicition
• Pleading
• Issues at Trial
• Judgment
• Local Rules
• Sanctions

A Selective Bibliography On The Endangered Species Act, Kristin Cheney

Faculty Articles

Since its passage in 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been the subject of much discussion and numerous publications. This bibliography is not an exhaustive treatment of the topic, but rather concentrates on monographs published from 1980 forward and includes only post-1988 journal articles. To aid the reader in locating relevant references, the journal articles are organized into the subcategories of (1) law and regulations, (2) litigation, and (3) international and extraterritorial.

Of Citizen Suits And Citizen Sunstein, Harold J. Krent, Ethan G. Shenkman

Michigan Law Review

After briefly summarizing Lujan and addressing Sunstein's critique, we explore the concept of accountability underlying the creation of a single executive in Article II. We then apply our theory of the unitary executive to several examples of broad grants of statutory standing, concluding that Congress can confer standing on private citizens only if it specifically articulates and individuates the interests whose violation gives rise to a cognizable case. Although we agree with Sunstein's view that broad grants of statutory standing do not necessarily trench upon constitutional values, we ultimately side with Justice Scalia in concluding that universal citizen standing, as …

Waiver: A Comprehensive Analysis Of A Consequence Of Inadvertently Producing Documents Protected By The Attorney-Client Privilege, Roberta M. Harding

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The inadvertent production of documents protected by the attorney-client privilege frequently occurs in contemporary litigation. This phenomena becomes more prevalent as the number of cases involving inadvertent document production grows. Unfortunately, given the present modes for resolving the waiver issue that stems from this occurrence, this occurrence could threaten to become the rule rather than the exception. The increased frequency of inadvertent document production is due primarily to more disputes arising out of production of documents demands by the opposing party that emerge as parties request the production of an increasing number of responsive documents. As a result, the sheer …

Mindlessness And Nondurable Precautions, Paul J. Heald

Scholarly Works

Assuming initially that negligence law does not make the distinction between durable and nondurable precautions, this Article will first explain in economic terms why the failure of courts to take into account the cost of remembering may nonetheless be efficient. A substantial body of research on the phenomenon of mindless decisionmaking ("scripting") suggests that most remembering is automatic--a nonconscious response to frequently encountered patterns of stimuli. Script theory suggests that once the behavioral script is in place, an automatic response operates at a very low cost. If so, the failure of courts to account for the cost of remembering would …

Toward A Liberal Application Of The "Close Of All The Evidence" Requirement Of Rule 50(B) Of The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure: Embracing Fairness Over Formalism, Rollin A. Ransom

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the language and purposes of rule 50 to determine if and when a relaxed application of its requirements is appropriate. Part I considers the terms and goal of the rule and concludes that its purpose is to put the party opposing the motion for judgment as a matter of law on notice of the movant's assertion that the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law, and to provide the opposing party an opportunity to "cure." Part II discusses courts' varying application of the requirement that a motion for judgment as a matter of law made at …

Litigation, E. D'Angelo

California Regulatory Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

There Goes The Neighborhood: The Evolution Of "Family" In Local Zoning Ordinances, William Graham

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

From A Defense Attorney's Perspective: "There Is No Free Lunch", Michael Crofton

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Thurgood Marshall, Peter N. Simon

Publications

No abstract provided.

Clerks In The Maze, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

Time Warps And Identity Crises: Muddling Through The Misnomer/Misidentification Mess, 26 J. Marshall L. Rev. 257 (1993), Diane S. Kaplan, Kimberly L. Craft

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Issue Preclusion - Recognizing Foreign Judgments In United States Patent Infringement Suits: A New Approach, 26 J. Marshall L. Rev. 627 (1993), James P. Muraff

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Forging Of A Political Weapon: The Impact Of The Cold War On The Law Of Contempt, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 3 (1993), Melvin B. Lewis

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Advocacy Training, Marilyn Berger, John Mitchell

Faculty Articles

This article examines advocacy teaching methodology and how to impart to students and beginning attorneys the methods and approaches that experienced trial lawyers use.

“Junk Science”: The Criminal Cases, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Lawyers, Henry J. Reske

News Articles

Conservative judge challenges Quayle statistics.