Law Commons^™

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The Development Of Medical Malpractice Litigation In Brazil, Eduardo Dantas

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper aims to demonstrate how medical malpractice litigation is developing in Brazil, and how the Brazilian legal system is dealing with the increase of demands against health care professionals. A brief overlook on the legal structure is provided, highlighting the most important issues being discussed today in Brazilian courts, regarding autonomy, consent, choice, the definition of moral damages, and the influence of the Consumer's Defense Code in litigation regarding health law.

Global Law And The Environment, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

This article explores three areas in which globalization is profoundly affecting the development of a global environmental law. First, countries increasingly are borrowing law and regulatory innovations from one another to respond to common environmental problems. Although this is not an entirely new phenomenon, it is occurring at an unprecedented pace. Second, lawsuits seeking to hold companies liable for environmental harm they have caused outside their home countries are raising new questions concerning the appropriate venue for such transnational liability litigation and the standards courts should apply for enforcement of foreign judgments. Third, nongovernmental organizations are playing an increasingly important …

Teaching Comparative Perspectives In The Domestic Constitutional Law Class: A Step-By-Step Primer, Mark S. Kende

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Litigio Estrategico Contra La Siembra De Maiz Geneticamente Modificado En Mexico,, Miguel Rábago Dorbecker, Graciela Rodriguez, Luis Miguel Cano, Luis Fernando Garcia

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pre-Service Removal In The Forum Defendant's Arsenal, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Faculty Scholarship

This article is the first academic defense of pre-service removal in diversity cases by forum-state defendants under the “properly joined and served” language of 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b). Pre-service removal has proliferated nationally in recent years. Appellate courts, however, have been silent on the issue for two reasons: First, orders that remand a case to state court are statutorily non-reviewable on appeal. Second, cases retained in federal court and litigated to final judgment are highly unlikely, for reasons of judicial economy, to be voided for de novo readjudication in state court. After tracing the development of the removal statute and …

The Fda, Preemption, And Public Safety: Antiregulatory Effects And Maddening Inconsistency, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Most people think of preemption as a technical constitutional doctrine, but it is pivotally important to health and safety, while also opening the door to broad judicial discretion. The Rehnquist and Roberts Courts’ pro-business/pro-preemption jurisprudence is distinctly antiregulatory, invalidating major state public health rules, such as in occupational safety, tobacco control, and motor vehicle safety. Apart from the antiregulatory effects, there is maddening inconsistency. Consider three relatively recent Supreme Court cases. In Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. (2008), the Court held that federal law bars injured consumers from challenging the safety or effectiveness of FDA-approved medical devices. A year later, …

The Role Of Judicial Discretion In Dispute Settlement, James Andreoni, Ray D. Madoff

Ray D. Madoff

We consider two common modes of judicial resolution: judicial discretion, where the judge or jury has broad discretion in fashioning a remedy, and winner take all where the remedy is pre-determined by the governing substantive law. We analyze these systems in light of the fact that pre-trial bargainers have been shown to have excessive confidence in their own positions. We find theoretically that winner-take-all rules magnify the effects of over-confidence and diminish the likelihood of settling relative to judicial discretion. We confirm our model with a laboratory experiment showing significantly fewer pre-trial agreements under winner-take-all. These results imply that increasing …

How Shareholder Litigations Deter Directors And Officers. U.S. And Italy, A Comparative Analysis, Federico Pastre

Federico Pastre

This paper focuses on the issue of whether shareholder litigations brought in the U.S. - namely, derivative suits and securities class actions – and their equivalent in the Italian law system, achieve their principal regulatory goal of deterring corporate directors and officers from engaging in unlawful conduct, in addition to compensating shareholders and investors for the harm they suffered.

In the U.S., effective derivative suits and securities class actions, contingency fees, and the rule concerning legal expenses, create an entrepreneurial system in which directors and officers are ultimately deterred by the private enforcement of the law. Nevertheless, the presence of …

Giving Notice: An Argument For Notification Of Putative Plaintiffs In Complex Litigation, Marjorie A. Silver

Marjorie A. Silver

Professor Silver advocates recognition of an inherent judicial power to send or authorize notice of pending litigation to potentially interested persons with unfiled claims. Recognizing such a judicial power is consistent with recent legal developments establishing a role for judges in expediting and managing federal litigation. Although the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure only explicitly provide for notice to potential parties in Rule 23 class action litigation, Professor Silver demonstrates that a more general judicial power to notify putative plaintiffs is consistent with the federal rules and the Constitution. She also shows that the first amendment values support a judicial …

Making Plaintiffs Whole: A Tax Problem Of Interest, William E. Foster

William E Foster

This article illustrates the dramatic tax impact of interest awards in otherwise non-taxable litigation recoveries. While plaintiffs who recover personal injury awards typically receive favorable treatment, those receiving interest on such awards are taxed on the interest and are unable to utilize deductions for attorney’s fees paid to obtain the recovery. Further, the attorney’s portion of the recovery often will be included in the plaintiff’s gross income. The result is that the plaintiff recovers less of the interest than the Treasury or her attorney, preventing the plaintiff from being made whole. After reviewing the historical and theoretical framework that produces …

A Generation Of Software Patents, James Bessen

James Bessen

This study examines changes in the patenting behavior of the software industry since the 1990s. It finds that most software firms still do not patent, most software patents are obtained by a few large firms in the software industry or in other industries, and the risk of litigation from software patents continues to increase dramatically. Given these findings, it is hard to conclude that software patents have provided a net social benefit in the software industry.

Langdellian Limericks, D.A. Jeremy Telman

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Compelled To Render The Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice Mediation: Benefits Gained, Opportunities Lost , Carol B. Liebman

Law and Contemporary Problems

Liebman reviews two recent studies evaluating the use of interest-based mediation to resolve medical malpractice claims. The first studied cases brought against the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the second, Mediating Suits against Hospitals, studied cases brought against private New York City hospitals. How non-participation of physicians in mediations diminishes opportunities to achieve noneconomic goals that plaintiffs desire is analyzed.

Rationalizing Noneconomic Damages: A Health-Utilities Approach, David M. Studdert, Allen Kachalia, Joshua A. Salomon, Michelle M. Mello

Law and Contemporary Problems

Studdert et al examine why making compensation of noneconomic damages in personal-injury litigation more rational and predictable is socially valuable. Noneconomic-damages schedules as an alternative to caps are discussed, several potential approaches to construction of schedules are reviewed, and the use of a health-utilities approach as the most promising model is argued. An empirical analysis that combines health-utilities data created in a previous study with original empirical work is used to demonstrate how key steps in construction of a health-utilities-based schedule for noneconomic damages might proceed.

Most Claims Settle: Implications For Alternative Dispute Resolution From A Profile Of Medical-Malpractice Claims In Florida , Mirya Holman, Neil Vidmar, Paul Lee

Law and Contemporary Problems

Holman et al draw attention to the frequent and complicated evidentiary problems in medical malpractice claims and the procedural mechanisms provided by statutes, court rules, and case law that are already in place to facilitate claim resolution. While proposed alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures might well provide better resolutions to medical malpractice claims, they must take into consideration both the unique characteristics of medical malpractice disputes and existing mechanisms for resolving these disputes. The profile of the settlements of Florida medical-malpractice claims provides a structure with which any proposals for ADR must contend.

Dialogue On State Action, Martin A. Schwartz, Erwin Chemerinsky

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Section 1983 Developments, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Section 1983, Martin A. Schwartz, George Pratt, Leon Friedman

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Fundamentals Of Section 1983 Litigation, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Section 1983 Developments: October 1998 Term, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Section 1983 Litigation – Supreme Court Developments, Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Slides: Who Should Be At The Table, And What Should They Be Talking About?, Robert W. Adler

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Robert W. Adler, James I. Farr Chair in Law, University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law

9 slides

Slides: Risk Management Strategies Of The Upper Basin: Addressing Potential Shortages, Eric Kuhn

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Eric Kuhn, Colorado River Water Conservation District

15 slides

Slides: Thinking The Unthinkable, Lawrence J. Macdonnell

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

Presenter: Lawrence J. MacDonnell, University of Wyoming College of Law

7 slides

Report Surveys Colorado River Basin Leaders: Collaborative Approaches To Dwindling Supplies Are Highlighted, Sarah Bates, University Of Montana Missoula. Center For Natural Resources And Environmental Policy

Navigating the Future of the Colorado River (Martz Summer Conference, June 8-10)

4 pages.

Press release "April 14, 2011"

"Executive Summary April 2011" of report, Thinking Like a River Basin: Leaders' Perspectives on Options and Opportunities in Colorado River Management

Full report available at:

http://www.carpediemwest.org/wp-content/uploads/Thinking_Like_A_River_Basin_8-20-13.pdf

Shooting Suspect's Release Revives The Right To A Speedy Trial In Missouri, A, Clayton Thompson

Missouri Law Review

This Note will examine the history of the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial clause, highlighting its development within the last twenty years. It will attempt to explain the rationale behind the court's decision to dismiss the indictment of a possibly violent criminal. It will take the position that in future cases where the government is to blame for an unusually slow prosecution, the outcome of this case must be repeated to maintain the integrity of the right to a speedy trial and our criminal justice system.

Introducing Civil Law Students To Common Law Legal Method Through Contract Law, Charles R. Calleros

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Optimal Lead Plaintiffs, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

Adequate representation in securities class actions is, at best, an afterthought and, at worst, usurped and subsumed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act’s lead-plaintiff appointment process. Once appointed, the lead plaintiff bears a crushing burden: Congress expects her to monitor the attorney, thwart strike suits, and deter fraud, while judges expect her appointment as the “most adequate plaintiff” to resolve intra-class conflicts and adequate-representation problems. But even if she could be all things to all people, the lead plaintiff has little authority to do much aside from appointing lead counsel. Plus, class members in securities-fraud cases have diverse preferences …

Stealing Sunshine, Ronen Perry, Dana Weimann-Saks

Law and Contemporary Problems

This study is the first to examine the efficacy of this tactic, both theoretically and empirically, contributing to the growing literature on the impact of various trial-advocacy techniques on decision-makers' perceptions and trial outcomes. Given the primacy of the work, the authors draw on existing literature on a related courtroom technique commonly known as "stealing thunder," which is -- in a sense -- the mirror image of the tactic under scrutiny.