Civil Procedure Commons^™

Did The Civil Justice Reform Act Of 1990 Actually Expire?, Carl Tobias

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (CJRA) was intended to reduce the expense and delay associated with federal district court litigation by requiring courts to study and adopt new procedures. The CJRA's gains, however, may be erased by the uncertainty surrounding its sunset provision. Professor Tobias argues that Congress or the Judicial Conference should resolve the uncertainty by proclaiming that the CJRA has expired, thus forcing districts to abrogate procedures inconsistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

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

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law Ii: The Law And Politics Of Constitutional Cases, Oregon Law Institute, Susan P. Graber, W. Michael Gillette, Rebecca R. Davis, David Schuman, Claudia E. Burton, David Heynderickx, Kelly W.G. Clark

Oregon Law Institute, 1996

Course Materials from the October 11, 1996 Program in Portland

Legislative Development, The Attorney Accountability Act: A Case Study Of The Complexities Of Incentive-Based Legal Reform, Jamie S. Henikoff, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.

Shopping For A Venue: The Need For More Limits On Choice, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

In an earlier article, Professor Norwood questioned the wisdom of the Supreme Court's decision in Ferens v. John Deere Co., which allows plaintiffs to double forum-shop, i.e., to file a lawsuit in one jurisdiction and then, while retaining the advantages of that jurisdiction's laws, to transfer the lawsuit to the geographically preferred jurisdiction. There, Professor Norwood assumed that having choices about where to file lawsuits was a necessary component of America's judicial system. Below, however, Professor Norwood explores that assumption and concludes that parties should not have the unrestricted choices seemingly provided by most venue laws.

Statutory Post-Judgment Interest: The Effect Of Legislative Changes After Judgment And Suggestions For Construction, Brian P. Miller

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fractured Procedure: The Civil Justice Reform Act Of 1990, Lauren K. Robel

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Federal district courts have viewed the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 as a mandate to adopt procedural rules inconsistent with existing law. But in this article, Professor Robel argues that the Act neither compels nor authorizes such local deviations. Citing examples from reforms underway in district courts nationwide, Professor Robel contends that courts' assertions of broad rulemaking authority rest on a misreading of the Act and of the compromise between Congress and the judiciary that led to its passage. Professor Robel cautions that the goal of national uniformity underlying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should not be compromised …

Interstate Consolidation: A Comparison Of The Ali Project With The Uniform Transfer Of Litigation Act (American Law Institute Complex Litigation Project: A Symposium, In Memoriam Donald Theodore Trautman), Edward H. Cooper

Articles

The Uniform Transfer of Litigation Act (UTLA) was undertaken for purposes simpler than the mass consolidation of multiparty, multiforum litigation. It seeks to create an effective tool that can be used to reduce some of the artificial barriers that tradition has erected around the sovereign separateness of the many different court systems in this country. The fact of separate sovereignty must be recognized, however, and to this end consent of both transferring and receiving courts is required. Within the consent requirement, transfer from the court system of one sovereign to the court system of another can improve on present practices …

28 U.S.C. § 1658: A Limitation Period With Real Limitations, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

Several centuries from now, when archaeologists have unearthed a copy of the Federal Reporter and turned it over to legal historians for study and analysis, our descendants will be puzzled to discover that a society in which judicial resources were such a scarce "commodity" expended so much of that "commodity" searching its state codes for "analogous" limitation periods. I doubt very much that, at least in this regard, our priorities will command much admiration.

Fixing the statute of limitation for a particular cause of action is a legislative function. Indeed, it is not a particularly difficult or complex legislative function. …

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.

Adverse Publicity As A Means Of Reducing Judicial Decision-Making Delay: Periodic Disclosure Of Pending Motions, Bench Trials And Cases Under The Civil Justice Reform Act, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Codification Of Supplemental Jurisdiction: Anatomy Of A Legislative Proposal, Arthur D. Wolf

Faculty Scholarship

The historic nature of congressional action in codifying supplemental jurisdiction in section 1367 calls for a close examination of the legislative process and product. Section I of this Article presents a brief survey of the development of supplemental jurisdiction. Section II examines the history of the legislative process that produced section 1367. Section III contains a preliminary review of judicial decisions under the new supplemental jurisdiction statute. The Article concludes with some editorial remarks regarding the statute and the process by which it became public law.

Close Enough For Government Work: What Happens When Congress Doesn't Do Its Job, Thomas C. Arthur, Richard Freer

Faculty Articles

There's the beef. The supplemental jurisdiction statute, particularly section 1367(b), is a nightmare of draftsmanship. The problems that flow from that fact are more than aesthetic. The sloppiness makes easy cases hard and sows confusion in areas where there should be, and so easily could have been, clarity. It creates that most wasteful type of litigation - fights over jurisdiction. Subject matter jurisdiction rules ought to be clear and capable of near-mechanical application whenever possible. Such pre­cision was possible in the supplemental jurisdiction, if only someone had spent as much time writing the statute as the trio has spent writing …

The Rehnquist Court, Statutory Interpretation, Inertial Burdens, And A Misleading Version Of Democracy, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

No one theory or school of thought consistently dominates judicial application of statutes, but the basic methodology employed by courts seems well-established if not always well-defined. Most mainstream judges and lawyers faced with a statutory construction task will look at (although with varying emphasis) the text of the statute, the legislative history of the provision, the context of the enactment, evident congressional purpose, and applicable agency interpretations, often employing the canons of construction for assistance. Although orthodox judicial thought suggests that the judge's role is confined to discerning textual meaning or directives of the enacting legislature, courts also often examine …

Reconsidering The Employment Contract Exclusion In Section 1 Of The Federal Arbitration Act: Correcting The Judiciary's Failure Of Statutory Vision, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The Federal Arbitration Act (the Act), seeks to eliminate centuries of perceived judicial hostility toward arbitration agreements. The Act made written arbitration agreements involving interstate commerce specifically enforceable. It also provided a procedural structure for enforcing awards, which were protected through deferential judicial review. The Act intended to have a wide reach, employing a broad definition of commerce that has presumably grown in breadth along with the expansion of judicial notions of commerce. Although courts applied the Act in tentative and cautious fashion until the 1960's, arbitration gained momentum during the 1970's and the 1980's. Despite growing judicial enthusiasm for …

Complex-Litigation Reform And The Legislative Process, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

New York's Real Property Tax Law: The More Changes That Are Made, The More Things Stay The Same, Ira M. Sockowitz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Surrogate Parenting After Baby M: The Ball Moves To The Legislature’S Court, John R. Dunne, Gregory V. Serio

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 1404(A), "Where It Might Have Been Brought": Brought By Whom?, Michael J. Waggoner

Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil Rule 52(A): Rationing And Rationalizing The Resources Of Appellate Review, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

My text is a single and rather simple sentence from Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses. My theme is equally simple.. Rule 52(a) serves a vital institutional role in allocating the responsibility and the power of decision between district courts and the courts of appeals. The "dearly erroneous" standard of appellate review established by the Rule is a …

Reforming West Virginia's Jury Selection Process: West Virginia Jury Selection And Service Legislation Of 1986, Keith A. George

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Mental Health Professionals Predict Judicial Decisionmaking? Constitutional And Tort Liability Aspects Of The Right Of The Institutionalized Mentally Disabled To Refuse Treatment: On The Cutting Edge, Michael L. Perlin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Applicability Of The Antitrust Procedures And Penalties Act Of 1974 To Voluntary Dismissals, Jon B. Jacobs

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note argues that Congress should amend the APPA to require a judicial public interest determination prior to the entry of a voluntary dismissal in government-initiated civil antitrust actions. Part I of this Note briefly describes the APPA and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1). Part II asserts that APPA procedures do not currently apply to voluntary dismissals under Rule 41(a)(1). Part III concludes that the purposes underlying the APPA and general policy considerations support the legislative extension of the Act to dismissals. Part IV responds to objections to this proposal. Finally, Part V presents a specific amendment to the …

Offers Of Judgment And Rule 68: A Response To The Chief Justice, 18 J. Marshall L. Rev. 341 (1985), Lynn Sanders Branham

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Juries, Susan E. Morton

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure, Elizabeth L. Crittenden

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Timing As Jurisdiction: Federal Civil Appeals In Context, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

The purpose of these few pages is to show that the calculus of appeal timing is inherently complex. If we are to continue the effort to capture the calculus in rules, the rules will be correspondingly complex. The complex rules will have some virtues; nonetheless, the rules also are likely to generate misunderstanding and may tend to produce undesirable results. It is very tempting to replace the rules with a flexible system that relies largely on discretion to determine the occasions for appeal before a truly final judgment. Whether a flexible system has now become appropriate depends on the same …

A Reassessment Of The Younger Doctrine In Light Of The Legislative History Of Reconstruction, Donald H. Zeigler

Articles & Chapters

Recently the Supreme Court extended the doctrine of Younger v. Harris to preclude federal court reform of state criminal and civil justice systems. In this article, Professor Zeigler argues that Younger and its progeny directly contravene the intent of the Reconstruction Congresses that adopted the fourteenth amendment and enacted numerous pieces of enforcement legislation. His research demonstrates that these Congresses intended the federal courts to be the primary enforcer of Reconstruction reform measures. Professor Ziegler concludes that the federal courts are neglecting their duty to enforce constitutional safeguards in state justice systems.

Notice By Citizen Plaintiffs In Environmental Litigation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note evaluates judicial handling of citizen suits tainted by defective notice. After reviewing the legislative history of the citizen suit provisions, the Note presents an array of judicial responses to defective notice and classifies decisions by their stringency in applying the notice provision. In the final section, the Note argues that Congress's purpose in requiring notice should determine the limits of judicial tolerance of defective notice. It concludes that courts should dismiss citizen suits unless actual notice of intent to sue, whether or not in the form specified by EPA regulations, was given sixty days before the filing of …

Survey Of Developments In West Virginia Law: 1980

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.