Civil Procedure Commons^™

Summary Of Brooksby V. Nev. State Bank, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 82, Michael Bowman

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether a judgment creditor may garnish a nondebtor’s funds in bank accounts held jointly with a judgment debtor; and (2) whether NRS 31.070 imposes an absolute deadline for making a third-party claim, thereby precluding the district court from having jurisdiction.

Summary Of Humphries V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 85, Sean Daly

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether relief through a writ of mandamus was appropriate for the petitioners, Humphries and Rocha, and (2) whether Ferrell, a non-party cotortfeasor, was a necessary party under NRCP 19(a).

The Misbegotten Judicial Resistance To The Daubert Revolution, David E. Bernstein

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article reviews the history of the evolution of the rules for the admissibility of expert testimony since the 1980s, the revolutionary nature of what ultimately emerged, and the consistent efforts by recalcitrant judges to stop or roll back the changes, even after Rule 702 was amended to explicitly incorporate a strict interpretation of those changes.

Part I reviews the law of expert testimony through the Supreme Court’s Daubert decision. Critics had charged for decades that the adversarial system was a failure with regard to expert testimony. Parties to litigation, they argued, often presented expert testimony of dubious validity because …

Election Law Pleading, Joshua A. Douglas

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article explores how the Supreme Court’s recent pleading decisions in Twombly and Iqbal have impacted election litigation. It explains how Twombly and Iqbal’s “factual plausibility” standard usually does not help in an election case, because there is often little factual dispute regarding the operation of the election practice. Instead, the real question in a motion to dismiss is whether the plaintiff has stated a viable cause of action against the government defendant who is administering the election. But Twombly and Iqbal’s rule does not assist in answering this question. That is, Twombly and Iqbal are incongruent with …

Nonsuit In Virginia Civil Trials, Richard G. Moore

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Practice And Procedure, Andrew P. Sherrod, Jaime B. Wisegarver

University of Richmond Law Review

This article surveys recent significant developments in Virginia civil practice and procedure. The article discusses opinions of theSupreme Court of Virginia from June 2012 through June 2013 addressing civil procedure topics, significant amendments to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia concerning procedural issues during the same period, and legislation enacted by the Virginia General Assembly during its 2013 session that relates to civil practice.

An Implausible Standard For Affirmative Defenses, Stephen Mayer

Michigan Law Review

In the wake of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the federal district courts split over whether to apply Twombly’s plausibility standard to the pleading of affirmative defenses. Initially, a majority of district courts extended Twombly to defense pleadings, but recently the courts that have declined to extend the plausibility standard have gained majority status. This Note provides a comprehensive analysis of each side of the plausibility split, identifying several hidden assumptions motivating the district courts’ decisions. Drawing from its analysis of the two opposing positions, this Note responds to the courts that have applied plausibility pleading …

Jurisdiction And The Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments, Tanya Monestier

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Summary Of Stilwell V. City Of North Las Vegas And City Of Boulder City, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 76, Kylee Gloeckner

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether the district court’s appellate jurisdiction is final for cases that originate in the municipal courts; and (2) whether NRS 176.115 creates an additional right of appeal for a defendant who has already been given an opportunity to appeal and who has been unsuccessful.

State Of Trujillo V. State, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 78, Laura Guidry

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined issues: (1) whether the common law writ of coram nobis may be used in Nevada; and (2) whether a petitioner may use the writ of coram nobis to seek relief of judgment from his guilty plea to a felony when his counsel failed to warn him of the immigration implications of the plea.

Summary Of In Re Citycenter Construction & Lien Master Litigation, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 70, Michael Paretti

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined two issues: (1) whether the district court was correct in holding that an amended pleading must be dismissed because it was not filed with an affidavit and expert report required under Nevada law; (2) and whether the entire case must be dismissed or just the amended complaint must be dismissed under the meaning of “action.”

Summary Of Mcknight Family, Llp V. Adept Mgmt. Services, Inc., Et. Al., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 64, Whitney E. Short

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined three issues: (1) whether the district court had the authority to dismiss the complaint pursuant to NRS 38.310;2 (2) whether the district court erred in dismissing all seven claims (preliminary/permanent injunction, negligence, breach of contract, violation of NAC 116.300,3 violation of NAC 116.341,4 violation of NRS 116.1113 and 116.3103, and slander of title/wrongful foreclosure/quiet title) subject to NRS 38.310; and (3) whether the district court erred in setting aside the default judgment against Design 3.2.

Summary Of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. V. O’Brien, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 71, Patrick Opdyke

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined whether a district court order for judicial review of foreclosure mediation and remanding for further mediation is final and appealable, or whether it is not final and not appealable.

Footnote Online Supplement: State Truancy Law Compilation, Dean H. Rivkin

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This compilation of state truancy laws is being provided as a footnote supplement to the forthcoming article No Child Left Behind? Representing Youth and Families in Truancy Matters (2013) by Prof. Dean Hill Rivkin and Brenda McGee, of The Education Law Practicum at the University of Tennessee College of Law. It is an updated version of the laws listed in the Juvenile Law Center’s excellent amicus curiae brief in Bellevue School District v. E.S., Brief of Juvenile Law Center, et al., As Amicus Curiae on Behalf of Respondent, Bellevue Sch. Dist. v. E.S., 257 P.3d 570 (Wash. 2011) …

"Carving At The Joints": Using Issue Classes To Reframe Consumer Class Actions, Jenna C. Smith

Washington Law Review

Achieving class certification in consumer litigation is a highly controversial and greatly debated area of civil procedure. Historically, certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) has been difficult to achieve due to the tension between the presence of individual issues and Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance, superiority, and management considerations. The future of certification for Rule 23(b)(3) classes was further put in question with the United States Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Wal-Mart v. Dukes in 2011, which enhanced the level of scrutiny courts apply at the Rule 23(a) level of analysis. The Court’s 2013 decisions in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend …

Happy Anniversary To The Cplr: A Joint Achievement Of The Practicing Bar And The Academy, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This September, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Practice Law and Rules of New York State. The CPLR was the handiwork of the Advisory Committee on Practice and Procedure, appointed in 1955 by the New York State Temporary Commission on the Courts. Under the leadership of the Committee's reporter, then Columbia Law School Professor Jack B. Weinstein, the Committee members, which included former New York State Bar Association presidents Jackson Dykman and S. Hazard Gillespie, spent five years overhauling, revising and reforming the Civil Practice Act of 1920. This remarkable joint venture between the practicing bar and the …

Learning The 'How' Of The Law: Teaching Procedure And Legal Education, David Bamford, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Michael Karayanni, Erik S. Knutsen

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article examines the approaches to teaching civil procedure in five common law jurisdictions (Canada, Australia, United States, Israel, and England). The paper demonstrates the important transition of civil procedure from a vocational oriented subject to a rigorous intellectual study of policies, processes, and values underpinning our civil justice system, and analysis of how that system operates. The advantages and disadvantages of where civil procedure fits within the curriculum are discussed and the significant opportunities for ‘active’ learning are highlighted. The inclusion of England where civil procedure is not taught to any significant degree in the law degree provides a …

A Community Of Procedure Scholars: Teaching Procedure And The Legal Academy, Beth Thornburg, Erik S. Knutsen, Carla Crifò, Camille Cameron

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article asks whether the way in which procedure is taught has an impact on the extent and accomplishments of a scholarly community of proceduralists. Not surprisingly, we find a strong correlation between the placement of procedure as a required course in an academic context and the resulting body of scholars and scholarship. Those countries in which more civil procedure is taught as part of a university degree—and in which procedure is recognized as a legitimate academic subject—have larger scholarly communities, a larger and broader corpus of works analyzing procedural issues, and a richer web of institutional support systems that …

The Teaching Of Procedure Across Common Law Systems, Erik S. Knutsen, Thomas D. Rowe Jr., David Bamford, Shirley Shipman

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

What difference does the teaching of procedure make to legal education, legal scholarship, the legal profession, and civil justice reform? This first of four articles on the teaching of procedure canvasses the landscape of current approaches to the teaching of procedure in four legal systems— the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales—surveying the place of procedure in the law school curriculum and in professional training, the kinds of subjects that “procedure” encompasses, and the various ways in which procedure is learned. Little sustained re flection has been carried out as to the import and impact of this longstanding …

Thoughtful Practitioners And An Engaged Legal Community: The Impact Of The Teaching Of Procedure On The Legal Profession And On Civil Justice Reform, Janet Walker, Andrew Higgins, Thomas D. Rowe Jr., Carla Crifò

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

What difference does the teaching of civil procedure as an academic subject make to the practice of law, to the professional community in which lawyers practice, and to civil justice reform? In this article, proceduralists from Canada, England and Wales, the United States and Australia analyze the broader implications of teaching civil procedure as an integral feature of an academic legal education rather than as a part of vocational training. They consider ways in which the approach taken to the teaching of procedure in their legal system has influenced the evolution of the profession during a decade of increased public …

Brief Of Amici Curiae In Support Of Appellant, James Townsend V. Midland Funding, Llc, Stuart Robert Cohen, Peter A. Holland

Court Briefs

The Consumer Protection Clinic of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, filed a Motion to Participate and an Amicus Brief in the case of Townsend v. Midland Funding, LLC. The case presents the question of whether documents created by third party predecessors in interest—usually a bank—may be admitted into evidence when a debt buyer plaintiff does not demonstrate personal knowledge regarding any of the foundational elements which would be required to admit the documents under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Amici urge the Court to overturn the lower court, and hold that a …

Summary Of Vanguard Piping V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 63, Allison Vitangeli

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined whether NRCP 16.1(a)(1)(D) compels disclosure of all insurance agreements, regardless of whether the primary policy limits exceed the amount of potential liability or whether the policies provide secondary coverage.

Summary Of Loeb V. First Judicial District Court, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 62, Casey J. Stiteler

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considered a petition for a writ of prohibition or mandamus challenging a district court order denying a motion to serve individual defendants by publication. The question before the court was whether a party residing outside of the United States may be served by publication pursuant to NRCP 4(e)(1)(i) and (iii), rather than under the terms of the Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters when the party’s address is known.

Discovering The Right To Criminal Disclosure: Lessons From Civil Procedure, Denise Huiwen Wong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap 68, 1985 Rev Ed) and subsequent case law developments have created a patchwork of rules governing the disclosure obligations of parties in criminal cases. This article argues that parties have thereby been endowed with a right that is exercisable in the courts to access the material to which the law says they are entitled. However, there are currently no proper procedural mechanisms in place for parties to make interlocutory applications to obtain such material. This article examines the competing values and ideals of a criminal discovery regime, and suggests that concepts such …

Summary Of Bradford V. Eighth Judicial District Court, 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 60, Edward Wynder

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considered a petition for a writ of mandamus or prohibition from a Petitioner who failed to timely appeal an adverse judgment.

15th Annual Open Government Summit: Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, 2013, Department Of Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Pleading And Access To Civil Justice: A Response To Twiqbal Apologists, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

Professor Stephen Yeazell once wrote, ''A society based on the rule of law fails in one of its central premises if substantial parts of the population lack access to law enforcement institutions."" One apparent threat to access to justice in recent years has been the erosion of notice pleading in the federal courts in favor of a plausibility-pleading system that screens out potentially meritorious claims that fail to offer sufficient specificity and support at the pleading stage. But some have questioned whether this purported threat is more perceived than real. Indeed, this doctrinal shift has been defended in several ways …

New Hampshire: Impact Of The Proportional Discovery/Automatic Disclosure (Pad) Pilot Rules, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Nicole L. Waters, Cynthia G. Lee, Susan Keilitz

Faculty Publications

Across the nation, a growing chorus of judges, lawyers, business leaders, and consumer advocates is calling for reforms to the American civil justice system. Civil litigation, they argue, has become too time-consuming, too expensive, and too unpredictable. To address these concerns, many state and federal courts have begun to develop and implement civil justice reform efforts intended to streamline the litigation process, to minimize the potential for discovery disputes, and to expedite the fair resolution of civil cases. New Hampshire was one of the first jurisdictions to revise its rules of civil procedure with these objectives in mind. The project …

Electronic Data Discovery Sanctions: The Unmapped, Unwinding, Meandering Road, And The Courts’ Role In Steadying The Playing Field, Ahunanya Anga

San Diego Law Review

This Article highlights a growing problem for litigants who are involved in electronic data discovery (EDD). The world of litigation today encompasses massive amounts of electronically produced documents. It is estimated that ninety-nine percent of new information is created and stored electronically. The litigation practice generally, as it relates to electronic discovery (e-discovery) particularly, has mushroomed into a chaotic process. The technological age has radically impacted the federal discovery process. The purpose of the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) was, among other things, to address problems associated with electronically stored information (ESI) that arise during …

New Methods Of Financial White-Collar Criminal Investigation And Prosecution: The Spillover Of Wiretaps To Civil Enforcement Proceedings, Andrew P. Atkins

Pace Law Review

To have a proper understanding of the questions presented by the Rajaratnam cases, a basic understanding of the criminal and civil cases is necessary. Accordingly, Part II will briefly discuss the facts of the two cases, the investigation, and relevant court rulings. Part III will briefly discuss the history and relevant provisions of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act , the “comprehensive scheme” for regulating the authorization and disclosure of wiretaps. Part IV will discuss the primary theories the SEC could have used to obtain wiretap recordings for use in its civil enforcement proceeding, namely …