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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
Taking Empirical Research Seriously, Susan Saab Fortney
Taking Empirical Research Seriously, Susan Saab Fortney
Faculty Scholarship
This essay considers how empirical research on the legal profession can bridge the divide between theory, social science, and the ethical practice of law. After providing background information on the growing field of empirical legal research, Part I of this essay focuses on developments in empirical legal research on lawyering. Part II discusses how collaboration with practitioners and other stakeholders can help researchers address challenges related to accessing data. Once data are obtained, Part III suggests how dissemination and sharing of research can link the academy and practicing lawyers. The conclusion urges a collaborative course of action for legal ethics …
Will Quants Rule The (Legal) World?, Edward K. Cheng
Will Quants Rule The (Legal) World?, Edward K. Cheng
Michigan Law Review
The quants are coming! And they are here to stay-so argues Professor Ian Ayres' in his new book, Super Crunchers, which details the brave new world of statistical prediction and how it has already begun to affect our lives. For years, academic researchers have known about the considerable and at times surprising advantages of statistical models over the considered judgments of experienced clinicians and experts. Today, these models are emerging all over the landscape. Whether the field is wine, baseball, medicine, or consumer relations, they are vying against traditional experts for control over how we make decisions. To be …
Where's The Party: Do Class Action Plaintiffs Really Prefer State Courts?, Neil J. Marchand
Where's The Party: Do Class Action Plaintiffs Really Prefer State Courts?, Neil J. Marchand
Neil J. Marchand
Scholars and interest groups have discussed litigants’ behavior in the class action context. This paper uses empirical data to determine whether class action plaintiffs actually prefer to litigate their suits in state courts. Despite well-reasoned conjectures on the subject, to date there is a paucity of empirical data on class action litigation, especially at the state court level. This scarcity has thwarted analysis of the likelihood of class certification in the state courts, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005’s (CAFA) total impact on the judiciary, and the predictability of class action litigation. This study aims to start filling the …
Class Action Activity In Michigan's State And Federal Courts, Neil J. Marchand
Class Action Activity In Michigan's State And Federal Courts, Neil J. Marchand
Neil J. Marchand
This paper represents the first choice of forum analysis for class action suits filed in Michigan’s courts. This paper also analyzes the Class Action Fairness Act’s (CAFA) effects at the state court level, examining CAFA’s effects on Michigan’s state and federal courts. For Michigan’s state courts, available empirical data from January 2000 through December 2007 shows a decrease in state court class action filings, with a significant decline in filings starting in 2002 and ending in 2004. For Michigan’s federal courts, empirical data from July 2001 through June 2007 shows a modest decrease in class action filings. Four hypotheses are …
Myth Of The Color-Blind Judge: An Empirical Analysis Of Racial Harassment Cases, Pat K. Chew, Robert E. Kelley
Myth Of The Color-Blind Judge: An Empirical Analysis Of Racial Harassment Cases, Pat K. Chew, Robert E. Kelley
Articles
This empirical study of over 400 federal cases, representing workplace racial harassment jurisprudence over a twenty-year period, found that judges' race significantly affects outcomes in these cases. African American judges rule differently than White judges, even when we take into account their political affiliation and case characteristics. At the same time, our findings indicate that judges of all races are attentive to relevant facts of the cases but interpret them differently. Thus, while we cannot predict how an individual judge might act, our study results strongly suggest that African American judges as a group and White judges as a group …
False Confessions: Causes, Consequences And Implications, Richard A. Leo
False Confessions: Causes, Consequences And Implications, Richard A. Leo
Richard A. Leo
In the last two decades, hundred of convicted prisoners have been exonerated by DNA and non-DNA evidence, revealing that police-induced false confessions are a leading cause of the wrongful conviction of the innocent. This article reviews the empirical research on the causes and correlates of false confessions. After looking at the three sequential processes that are responsible for the elicitation of false confessions - misclassification, coercion and contamination - this article reviews the three psychologically distinct types of false confession (voluntary, compliant and persuaded) and then discusses the consequences of introducing false confession evidence in the criminal justice system. The …
Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning From Social Science, Richard A. Leo, Jon B. Gould
Studying Wrongful Convictions: Learning From Social Science, Richard A. Leo, Jon B. Gould
Richard A. Leo
There has been an explosion of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions in the last decade, reflecting a growing concern about the problem of actual innocence in the criminal justice system. Yet criminal law and procedure scholars have engaged in relatively little dialogue or collaboration on this topic with criminologists. In this article, we use the empirical study of wrongful convictions to illustrate what criminological approaches—or, more broadly, social science methods—can teach legal scholars. After briefly examining the history of wrongful conviction scholarship, we discuss the limits of the (primarily) narrative methodology of legal scholarship on wrongful convictions. We argue that …