Civil Procedure Commons^™

Reconsidering The Scope And Consequences Of Appellate Review In The Certification Decision Of Dukes V. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , Nicole Hitch

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will explore the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their application in the granting or denial of certification in an employment discrimination class action. In doing so, this article will examine how the district court applied these rules in the Wal-Mart action, which resulted in the certification of the largest private class action suit in American history. Additionally, this article will consider the consequences of the Ninth Circuit's utilization of permissive and liberal standards and, alternatively, the consequences of incorporation of stricter standards from various other circuit courts and the possible result of denial of certification.

Dukes V. Wal-Mart: Can 1.5 Million Women Save Employment Discrimination Class Actions?, Robert Fisher

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Learning From Wal-Mart, Melissa Hart

Publications

This article considers the landmark gender discrimination class action, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, both as a prototype of an emerging litigation strategy and also as a case that is entirely unique. As part of a growing trend of gender discrimination class claims, Dukes has the potential to push the boundaries of the law to confront the pervasive, tenacious stereotypes that continue to limit women's workplace opportunities. The plaintiffs' arguments - both the narrative of discrimination their evidence set out and the legal strategies they chose - are strikingly similar to claims that have been made in many class action …

Of Offers Not (Frequently) Made And (Rarely) Accepted: The Mystery Of Federal Rule 68, Harold S. Lewis Jr., Thomas A. Eaton

Scholarly Works

This Symposium brings together, from around the nation, eight civil rights and employment discrimination lawyers, four legal academics, and an eminent federal judge, all with deep experience and interest in the promise and pitfalls of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68. We gather to unravel a mystery. In an oversimplified nutshell, Rule 68, as construed, enables the defendants to say to the plaintiffs in employment discrimination and civil rights cases: "If you don't beat my offer at trial, you forfeit your right to any future statutory attorney fees." Rule 68 would, therefore, appear to give the defendants a significant incentive …

When Does A Party Prevail?: A Proposed "Third-Circuit-Plus" Test For Judicial Imprimatur, Matthew B. Tenney

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fighting To Keep Employment Discrimination Class Actions Alive: How Allison V. Citgo's Predomination Requirement Threatens To Undermine Title Vii Enforcement, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which provides compensatory and punitive damages and attendant jury trials in cases alleging intentional discrimination, was designed to enhance enforcement and expand remedies. Its enactment, however, has triggered a schism among the circuit courts over what the proper standard is for determining whether monetary damages or injunctive relief predominates, a necessary inquiry for determining whether plaintiffs are entitled to class certification for Title VII claims under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Led by the Fifth Circuit, some federal appeals courts contend that monetary relief predominates unless it is “incidental,” and …

Integrating Racial Justice Into The Civil Procedure Survey Course, Kevin R. Johnson

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Will Employment Discrimination Class Actions Survive?, Melissa Hart

Publications

Recent years have witnessed increasing attacks on the appropriateness of certification of employment discrimination class action claims. The shift is often attributed to amendments to federal antidiscrimination laws in the Civil Rights Act of 1991. This paper argues, however, that the changes wrought by the 1991 amendments need not pose a barrier to resolution of employment discrimination claims through class litigation. The addition of compensatory and punitive damages and a jury-trial right may increase the level of scrutiny and perhaps the level of judicial involvement necessary in an employment discrimination class action. But they do not render such a class …

Processing Civil Rights Summary Judgment And Consumer Discrimination Claims, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection: Professional Misconduct, Not Legitimate Advocacy, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the paradox between the adversary and disciplinary systems' outward condemnation of discrimination in jury selection and their apparent simultaneous inward acceptance of such conduct as legitimate advocacy.

Getting Title Vii Back On Track: Leaving Allison Behind For The Robinson Line, W. Lyle Stamps

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Plaintiffs And John Doe Defendants: A Study In § 1983 Procedure, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Oral Argument In Meyer V. Holley (No. 01-1120), Robert G. Schwemm, Douglas G. Benedon, Malcolm L. Stewart

Law Faculty Advocacy

The matter of Meyer v. Holley, 537 U.S. 280 (2003) was argued before the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 3, 2002. Professor Robert G. Schwemm argued on behalf of the Respondents. This document is a transcript of the oral argument.

Racial Profiling In Jury Selection: The Third Circuit Revisits The Batson Inquiry In Riley V. Taylor, Oluseyi Olubadewo

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Plaintiphobia In The Appellate Courts: Civil Rights Really Do Differ From Negotiable Instruments, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professors Clermont and Eisenberg conducted a systematic analysis of appellate court behavior and report that defendants have a substantial advantage over plaintiffs on appeal. Their analysis attempted to control for different variables that may affect the decision to appeal or the appellate outcome, including case complexity, case type, amount in controversy, and whether there had been a judge or a jury trial. Once they accounted for these variables and explored and discarded various alternate explanations, they came to the conclusion that a defendants' advantage exists probably because of appellate judges' misperceptions that trial level adjudicators are pro-plaintiff.

Purchasing While Black: How Courts Condone Discrimination In The Marketplace, Matt Graves

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Given the sweeping language of § 1981 and 1982, it cannot be that sellers of goods can engage in intentional discrimination, so long as they make relatively minor attempts to cover it up. By exploring the interaction between substantive law, procedural law, legal culture, and real-world context, Graves seeks to demonstrate that judges cannot offer any legal or practical justification for heightened pleading requirements in § 1981 and 1982 actions. Through this argument, a conclusion is reached that § 1981 and 1982 plaintiffs must be given the same opportunity to litigate their claims that virtually all other plaintiffs are given. …

… And From The Associate, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

No abstract provided.

Mcknight V. Rees: Delineating The Qualified Immunity "Haves" And "Have-Nots" Among Private Parties, James L. Ahlstrom

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ex Post Facto Laws: Supreme Court New York County People V. Griffin (Decided December 5, 1996

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Portia's Daughters: The Role Of The Individual Litigant In Developing European Community Sex Discrimination Law, Holly Cullen, Andrew Charlesworth

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Luddington V. Indiana Bell Telephone: The 1991 Civil Rights Act Is No Help In Pending Cases, William Wright Banks Jr.

Mercer Law Review

In Luddington v. Indiana Bell Telephone, the Seventh Circuit held that the Civil Rights Act of 1991 ("the Act") does not apply to suits pending on the effective date of the Act. In so holding, the court faced conflicts between Supreme Court precedent on the issue of when statutes become effective.

The Supreme Court cases deciding whether statutes are to be applied retroactively have been said to be "'in irreconcilable contradiction.' " In Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, the Supreme Court stated that statutes are presumed to apply to cases pending when the statute becomes …

Due Process In Death Penalty Commutations: Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Clemency, Daniel T. Kobil

University of Richmond Law Review

The idea of the last-minute reprieve granted by a distant, unknowable dispenser of mercy to a man condemned to death has a powerful hold on our imaginations. Fyodor Dostoevsky's eleventh hour pardon by the czar in many ways shaped his literary career. The scene of the haunted Death Row prisoner who awaits word from the governor as a ticking clock punctuates his final hours is a stock vignette of Hollywood crime films. Anyone who has ever seized on the slimmest hope, whose fate has been committed to the hands of another - virtually all of us - can identify with …

Separating The Objective, The Subjective, And The Speculative: Assessing Compensatory Damages In Fair Housing Adjudications, 26 J. Marshall L. Rev. 3 (1992), Alan W. Heifetz, Thomas C. Heinz

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Plaintiffs And The Proposed Revision Of Rule 11, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1983 amendment of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 has been the most controversial revision of the Federal Rules in their fifty-five-year history, and Rule l l's implementation has been most controversial in civil rights cases. Rule ll's application has disadvantaged civil rights plaintiffs more than any other category of civil litigant. Courts have found civil rights plaintiffs in violation of Rule 11 at a higher rate than other types of plaintiffs and have imposed substantial sanctions on them. Civil rights plaintiffs have been required to participate in expensive, unnecessary satellite litigation involving this provision. Indeed, a new study …

Civil Rights Conundrum, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

As a case study of the impediments imposed by the revised F.R.C.P. Rule 11 in civil rights litigation, Professor Tobias relates the story of the Robeson County, N.C. prosecution of Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, their subsequent civil rights action, and the ensuing Rule 11 sanctions imposed upon their counsel, as reported in In re Kunstler, 914 F.2d 505 (4th Cir. 1990).

Rule Revision Roundelay, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

A critique of the proposed revision of F.R.C.P. Rule 11.

Sanctions, Symmetry, And Safe Harbors: Limiting Misapplication Of Rule 11 By Harmonizing It With Pre-Verdict Dismissal Devices, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

With only a small risk of overstatement, one could say that sanctions in civil litigation exploded during the 1980s, with the 1983 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 acting as the principal catalyst. From 1938 until the 1983 amendment, only two dozen or so cases on Rule 11 were reported, with courts rarely imposing sanctions. Although a few cases were notable by virtue of sanction size, prestige of the firm sanctioned, or publicity attending the underlying case, the legal profession largely regarded Rule 11 as a dead letter. In addition, other sanctions provisions, such as Federal Rule of …

Civil Rights Procedural Problems, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 primarily to modify numerous Supreme Court opinions of the 1988 Term that jeopardized the rights of minorities and women. Particularly striking about those Supreme Court cases was the number which involved procedural questions and process values. These included the timing of litigation, both when employment discrimination victims must commence actions and when non-parties can reopen civil rights cases resolved through consent decrees; litigant responsibility for the expense of lawsuits; and proof requirements.

Most of the procedural developments in civil rights and employment discrimination litigation of the 1988 Term, however, were only recent …

Certification And Civil Rights, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In this 1991 article, Carl Tobias responds to Professor Arthur Miller's suggestion that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 should not be prematurely revised.

"Professor Miller's admonitions may convince some observers, especially those authorized to propose revisions in, or to amend, the Rule that there is little wrong with Rule 11's application and that the federal judiciary simply needs a few more years to refine the implementation of this new concept. Numerous problems, however, remain substantial and some may be intrinsic or even irremediable, while certain litigants, especially civil rights plaintiffs, cannot afford to wait. I trust that Professor Miller's …

Affirmative Action, Douglas Scherer, John Dunne

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.