Law Commons^™

Daubert And The Disappearing Jury Trial, Allan Kanner

ExpressO

Since being decided by the Supreme Court in 1993, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals has earned its place as one of the most misinterpreted and misapplied decisions in modern history. Meant to liberalize the standards for admissions of proof, the decision has had the opposite effect. The gatekeeper powers given to judges via Daubert, coupled with the internal and external incentives to prevent jury trials, has placed our entire civil justice system at risk.

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Reassessing Damages In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Elizabeth C. Burch

ExpressO

No coherent doctrinal statement exists for calculating open-market damages for securities fraud class actions. Instead, courts have tried in vain to fashion common-law deceit and misrepresentation remedies to fit open-market fraud. The result is a relatively ineffective system with a hallmark feature: unpredictable damage awards. This poses a significant fraud deterrence problem from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint.

In 2005, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to clarify open-market damage principles and to facilitate earlier dismissal of cases without compensable economic losses. Instead, in Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo, it further confused the damage issue by (1) perpetuating the …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Believing In Products Liability: Reflections On Daubert, Doctrinal Evolution, And David Owen's "Products Liability Law", Richard L. Cupp

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

The Overlapping Magisteria Of Law And Science: When Litigation And Science Collide, William G. Childs

ExpressO

The Supreme Court’s 1993 decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals transformed courts’ evaluation of expert testimony. Many courts, applying Daubert, focus extensively on whether the purported expert’s methodology has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This focus on peer review results in two unintended consequences that have triggered criticism: litigation-driven scholarship and litigants taking discovery into the peer review process. Critics contend that litigation-driven scholarship is irredeemably biased and that peer review discovery is too often an effort to intimidate scholars from speaking on subjects of public concern.

In this Article, I explore these phenomena and the criticisms of …

Los Principios Generales Del Derecho Probatorio Y El Proceso Civil, Dr Leonardo J. Raznovich

Dr Leonardo J Raznovich

This article, written and published for a Spanish speaking audience, provides with a critical comparative overview of the principles of civil procedure and of the law of evidence.

The Accuracy And Manipulability Of Lost Profits Damages Calculations: Should The Trier Of Fact Be "Reasonably Certain"?, Jonathan T. Tomlin, David Merrell

ExpressO

The accuracy and manipulability of calculations for lost profits damages are critical determinants of the ability of harmed parties to receive just compensation in a wide range of legal cases including antitrust, fraud, false advertising, intellectual property infringement, and breach of contract. They are also important determinants of the deterrent effects of the law. Using a sample of over 5,000 U.S. firms, we show that simple damages methods are capable of being substantially inaccurate. We also show that damages methods in general are highly susceptible to manipulation. In the absence of reasonable justifications for why particular data sets and methods …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Learning The Wrong Lessons From "An American Tragedy": A Critique Of The Berger-Twerski Informed Choice Proposal, David E. Bernstein

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

This paper is a critique of Margaret Berger and Aaron Twerski, “Uncertainty and Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert”, forthcoming the Michigan Law Review. Berger and Twerski propose that courts recognize a cause of action that would allow plaintiffs who claim injury from pharmaceutical products, but who do not have sufficient evidence to prove causation, to recover damages for deprivation of informed choice. Berger and Twerski claim inspiration from the litigation over allegations that the morning sickness drug Bendectin caused birth defects. Considering the criteria Berger and Twerski suggest for their proposed cause of action in the context of Bendectin, it appears …

Constructing Products Liability: Reforms In Theory And Procedure, Frank J. Vandall

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Legal Scholars Get Daubert Wrong: A Contextualist Explanation Of Law's Epistemology, Alani Golanski

Alani Golanski

Daubert requires the court to make judgments about scientific evidence. But judges, like jurors, are lay persons in relation to such evidence. So Daubert has been criticized as requiring too much of the court, and such alternatives as blue ribbon panels have been proposed. This article shows that, notwithstanding any problems that Daubert itself might have, the Daubert scholarship is significantly hampered by the way legal scholars categorize knowledge. A "contextualist" (as opposed to "invariantist") theory of knowledge is both philosophically best, and makes sense of law's relation to science.

Causation In Toxic Tort Litigation: Which Way Do We Go, Judge, Laurie Alberts

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fishing For The Smoking Gun, Y. Daphne Coelho-Adam

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Industry-wide tort litigation, such as tobacco and gun litigation, poses a new problem for extraterritorial discovery. These suits allege conspiracies on the part of the tobacco and gun industries to conceal the dangers of their products from the public. Much of the evidence needed to prove the industries' knowledge is in their possession. These industries are international with companies located in the United Kingdom. Under U.S. discovery law the evidence is discoverable, but such is not the case under British discovery law. Therefore, the evidence and witnesses located in the United Kingdom are outside the grasp of U.S. plaintiffs. The …

When Science Is Too Daunting: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Federal Courts, And The Struggling Spirit Of Daubert, Carl H. Johnson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fashionable Genetic Explanations In The Courtroom: Litigating Personal Injuries Based On Genetic Risk, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

New developments in molecular genetics hold much promise for society. Gene therapy research is underway with the aim of helping to fight, and perhaps even eliminate some diseases. DNA data can be used as evidence to help free innocent people and put guilty ones in jail. Agricultural biotechnology can make crops and pesticides more productive. And cloning may offer exciting potential. There is little doubt that further· developments in the areas of genetics and biotechnology will change our lives in unanticipated ways.

Despite the potential benefits to society, there exist valid and serious I concerns about the potential for misuse …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

Pink Elephants In The Rape Trial: The Problem Of Tort-Type Defenses In The Criminal Law Of Rape, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

"Other Accident" Evidence In Product Liability Actions: Highly Probative Or An Accident Waiting To Happen?, Robert A. Sachs

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evidentiary Use (And Misuse) Of The Civil Defendant's Financial Status, Karen M. Grundy

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

In Support Of Huber, Jon F. Merz

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

The author takes exception to two recent reviews of GALILEO'S REVENGE.

Allen V. The United States Of America: The “Substantial” Connection Between Nuclear Fallout And Cancer, Daniel Swartzman, Tom Christoffel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Developments, Various Editors

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Smith Rule And A Party's Burden Of Coming Forward When Relying On Circumstantial Evidence, Paul A. Kiefer

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evidence, Roslyn M. Litman

Scholarship

This article is not intended to constitute a comprehensive review of all evidence cases decided in Pennsylvania in the past ten years. The cases selected, of necessity, have been limited. They have been chosen because they affect either a field of special interest or one of special confusion. Cases dealing with applications of the parol evi­dence rule and with constitutional issues in criminal prosecutions have been omitted entirely because they are covered elsewhere in this Survey.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust Law--Violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act by Joint Venture

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Civil Rights--Anti-discrimination Law as a Vehicle for a Private Civil Action

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Condemnation--Landowner Cannot Recover From Federal Government for Damages Caused Before Date of Taking Where Government Did Not Previously Contemplate, Condemning Property

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Constitutional Law--Loss of Nationality--Foreign Residency Statute Held Violative of Due Process

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Constitutional Law--Reapportionment--Both Houses of a State Legislature Must Be Based as Nearly as Is Practicable on Population

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Constitutional Law--Twenty-first Amendment--Scope of State Power Over Intoxicants Moving Within Its Borders

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Evidence--Statutory Presumptions--Reasonableness Is Implicit in Test of Rational Connection

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Liability Insurance And The Rule Of Exclusion In Tort Actions

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, Charles Henry Rudolph Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exhibition Of Person In Personal Injury Cases, Dennis M. Burgoon

Cleveland State Law Review

It is to be admitted that the proof of injury, which is directed to the senses, is a most convincing means of proof, and is the best evidence of a material fact, but it is not the fact that such exhibition is material that comes into dispute when such an exhibition is sought to be admitted, rather it is the claimed prejudicial effect of such exhibition, or the possibility that it might be indecent that raises the objection to this form of evidence.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Constitutional Law--Due Process--Duty of Non-Resident Vendor to Collect Use Tax

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Evidence--Criminal Law--Circumstantial Evidence Sufficient to Establish Corpus Delicti

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Evidence--Presumptions--Rebuttable Presumption Persists Until Trier of Fact Finds Nonexistence of Presumed Fact as Probable as its Existence

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Restraint of Trade--Sherman Act--Refusal to Sell as Unlawful Means of Effecting Price Maintenance

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Torts--Negligence--Vendor of Alcoholic Beverage to Intoxicated Minor Liable to Third Party