Civil Procedure Commons^™

Products Liability Cases On Appeal: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes 1,100 opinions to find the determinants of products liability cases on appeal in state and federal courts. The strongest predictor of plaintiff success on appeal is whether the plaintiff prevailed in a jury trial. Other important factors are the defendant's status as manufacturer, wholesaler, or successor corporation; the plaintiffs degree of injury; and whether the case involved a failure-to-warn claim. The existence of a comparative negligence regime increases the tendency of appellate courts to affirm lower courts. These results allow rejection of a simple model in which pre- and posttrial settlement behavior filters out cases in which …

Trial By Jury Or Judge: Transcending Empiricism, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Pity the civil jury, seen by some as the sickest organ of a sick system. Yet the jury has always been controversial. One might suppose that, with so much at stake for so long, we would all know a lot about the ways juries differ from judges in their behavior. In fact, we know remarkably little. This Article provides the first large-scale comparison of plaintiff win rates and recoveries in civil cases tried before juries and judges. In two of the most controversial areas of modern tort law--product liability and medical malpractice--the win rates substantially differ from other cases' win …

Inside The Quiet Revolution In Products Liability, Theodore Eisenberg, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

"A bullet in the head of products liability reform." Thus did a lobbyist orally characterize our article in this law review, The Quiet Revolution in Products Liability, describing declining plaintiff success in products liability cases in the 1980s. From the coverage and criticism the Quiet Revolution received around the country and around the world, the trends we discovered struck many as surprising enough to be newsworthy and others as sufficiently threatening to warrant a special response. Products liability's sustained presence on state and federal legislative agendas warrants continuing and expanding the study begun in the Quiet Revolution.

This …

Why Vosburg Comes First, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jurors' Judgments Of Business Liability In Tort Cases: Implications For The Litigation Explosion, Valerie P. Hans, William S. Lofquist

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Criticisms of the civil jury, including charges that the jury is biased against business, have been central to debates over the litigation explosion and demands for tort reform. This article seeks to inform these ongoing controversies by examining tort jurors' accounts of how they reached decisions in cases with business parties. Interviews and questionnaire data showed that jurors were skeptical of plaintiff tort cases against businesses, organized their accounts more on the actions and motivations of plaintiffs than on the responsibilities of business, and spoke often of the litigation crisis and the importance of limiting awards.

Plotting The Next "Revolution" In Choice Of Law: A Proposed Approach, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Citizen Comprehension Of Difficult Issues: Lessons From Civil Jury Trials, Joe S. Cecil, Valerie P. Hans, Elizabeth C. Wiggins

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Lay participation in debates concerning public policies is a touchstone of a democracy. The Constitution enshrines this value not only by providing for a system of elected representatives, but also by recognizing the right to trial by jury. When a democratic society seeks to impose the rigors of the law on an individual, it must justify those standards to a panel of citizens and allow the austere expression of the law to become infused with the values of the community. Through this process, the vision of justice shared by members of the community informs the dialogue of adjudication.

The increasing …

The Relationship Between Plaintiff Sucess Rates Before Trial And At Trial, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal cases that reach trial are a biased subset of underlying disputes. This makes it difficult to study the legal system by observing tried cases. This paper examines the relationship between plaintiff success at pretrial motion and trial stages across many categories of cases. The large, significant positive relationship between plaintiff success rates at these two procedural stages suggests that characteristics of case categories influence outcomes at both stages. Observers of a category of tried cases or cases resolved by motion can make informed judgments about how that category of cases fares at the other procedural stage.

The Quiet Revolution In Products Liability, James A. Henderson Jr., Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Most revolutions are noisy, tumultuous affairs. This is as true of significant shifts in legal doctrine as it is of shifts of political power through force of arms. Indeed, the pro-plaintiff revolution in American products liability in the early 1960s will forever be associated with heroic, martial images, epitomized in Prosser's description of the assault upon, and fall of, the fortress citadel of privity. The same sort of terminology aptly could be used to describe the last five or ten years of legislative reform activity in the various states. Reacting to what many see as "crises" brought on by courts …

Testing The Selection Effect: A New Theoretical Framework With Empirical Tests, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Recent law and economics scholarship has produced much theoretical and empirical work on how and why legal disputes are settled and litigated. One of the most significant developments in this literature, attributable to the work of William Baxter and the combined efforts of George Priest and Benjamin Klein, has been the formation of a theory about both the selection of disputes for trial and the rates of success that plaintiffs enjoy for those cases that are resolved at trial. The basic theory contains two components. The selection effect refers to the proposition that the selection of tried cases is not …

Procedure's Magical Number Three: Psychological Bases For Standards Of Decision, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

So many procedural doctrines appear, after research and teaching, to trifurcate. An obvious example is that kind of standard of decision known as the standard of proof: what in theory might have been a continuum of standards divides in practice into the three distinct standards of preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing evidence, and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Other examples suggest both that I am not imagining the prominence of three and that more than coincidence is at work.

Part I of this essay describes the role of the number three in procedure, with particular regard to standards …

Modern Evidence And The Expert Witness, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Two Cheers For The Ali Restatement's Provisions On Foreign Discovery, Douglas E. Rosenthal, Stephen W. Yale-Loehr

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Surveying Work Product, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Work product is the legal doctrine that central casting would send over. First, it boasts profundities, arising as it does from the colliding thrusts of our discovery and trial processes and from conflicting currents in our modified adversary system. Second, it will surface frequently, because the protected materials are commonly created by each side but uncommonly useful to the opponent. Third, it has generated a small mountain of lower-court case law, with the foothills forming a labyrinth of rules and wrinkles. In short, work product has for a couple of generations dramatically bewitched academics, bothered practitioners, and bewildered students.

Significant …

The Silent Revolution, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure: Commentary, Faust Rossi

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Restating Territorial Jurisdiction And Venue For State And Federal Courts, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

"Jurisdiction must become venue," concluded Professor Albert A. Ehrenzweig. Perhaps it should. More certain is the proposition that comprehending jurisdiction requires mastering its relationship with venue. Such conclusions lie at some distance, however, bringing to mind that every journey must begin with a single step. A solid first step takes me to the subject of this Symposium, the Restatement (Second) of Judgments. This, put simply, is a masterful work. Even while still in tentative drafts, it proved an invaluable aid to judge, practitioner, teacher, and student. Yet in a work of such scope, anyone could find grounds for differing. …

State Law In Federal Civil Rights Cases: The Proper Scope Of Section 1988, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The Code Of Professional Responsibility As A Measure Of Attorney Liability In Civil Litigation, Charles W. Wolfram

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving On The Contingent Fee, Kevin M. Clermont, John D. Currivan

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Two basic fees--contingent and hourly--dominate the variety of fees that lawyers charge clients for pursuing damage claims. Each of these two types has its advantages; each is plagued with substantial disadvantages. This Article proposes a new type of fee, one that preserves the respective advantages of the two present fees while minimizing their distinct disadvantages.

In essence, the proposed fee calls for the payment, on a contingent basis, of an amount computed by adding one component tied to hours worked and another component linked to amount recovered. The preferability and feasibility of this proposed fee argue for the abolishment, or …

The Application And Avoidance Of Foreign Law In The Law Of Conflicts: Variations On A Theme Of Alexander Nekam, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Lying at the heart of all conflicts theories is a recognition that the function of the law of conflicts is to ensure rational and just solutions to controversies involving foreign elements. A just and rational solution is one that somehow accommodates those elements. This does not mean that the foreign law must be applied but simply suggests that at least some attention should be paid to that law in the process of resolving disputes. From these relatively uncontroversial postulates, one moves to the more difficult problem of defining the role of foreign law in the conflicts setting.

Attention in this …

In What Actions, And Upon What Facts, A Warrant Of Attachment May Be Granted In New York, Henry W. Williams

Historical Theses and Dissertations Collection

No abstract provided.

Pleadings Their History- Comparison Of The Common Law And Code Systems Technicalities Of The Code, Charles Bliven Mason

Historical Theses and Dissertations Collection

No abstract provided.

Competency And Privilege Of Witnesses Under Section 829 Of The New York Code Of Civil Procedure, Patrick C. Daly

Historical Theses and Dissertations Collection

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The Evolution Of Reforms In Proceedure, Newton J. Commings

Historical Theses and Dissertations Collection

No abstract provided.