Civil Procedure Commons^™

Empirical Research And Civil Jury Reform, Valerie P. Hans, Stephanie Albertson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In January 2003, President George W. Bush invoked the supposed failings of the civil jury as the rationale for sweeping changes to the civil justice system. In a speech given at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, a state where skyrocketing costs of medical malpractice insurance had created a political crisis, President Bush said, "Excessive jury awards will continue to drive up insurance costs, will put good doctors out of Scranton, Pa." Among the changes he proposed were a decrease in the time that patients would have to sue their doctors, a national cap on pain and suffering awards at …

5th Annual Open Government Summit: Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, 2003, Department Of Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Memorandum Of Argument, Supreme Court Of Canada, In Re James R. Demers, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Traditional Equity And Contemporary Procedure, Thomas O. Main

Washington Law Review

This Article offers extensive background on the development and eventual merger of the regimes of law and equity, and suggests that the procedural infrastructure of a unified system must be sufficiently elastic to accommodate the traditional jurisdiction of equity. As the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure become increasingly more elaborate and technical, strict application of those procedural rules can generate mischievous results and hardship. This Article suggests that equity remains a source of authority for district judges to avoid the application of a procedural rule when technical compliance would produce an inequitable result. A separate system of equity provided a …

The Government As Litigant: Further Tests Of The Case Selection Model, Theodore Eisenberg, Henry Farber

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We develop a model of the plaintiff's decision to file a lawsuit that has implications for how differences between the federal government and private litigants translate into differences in trial rates and plaintiff win rates at trial. Our case selection model generates a set of predictions for relative trial rates and plaintiff win rates, depending on the type of case and whether the government is defendant or plaintiff. To test the model, we use data on about 474,000 cases filed in federal district court between 1979 and 1994 in the areas of personal injury and job discrimination, in which the …

Lay Participation In Legal Decision Making: Introduction To Law & Policy Special Issue, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

United States scholarship on lay participation revolves around one predominant form of lay participation, the jury (Hans & Vidmar forthcoming 2004). However, in the legal systems of many countries, laypeople participate as decision makers in other ways. Laypersons serve as judges (Provine 1986), magistrates (Diamond 1993), and private prosecutors (Perez Gil 2003). Lay and law-trained judges may also decide cases together in mixed tribunals (Kutnjak Ivkovi6 2003; Machura 2003; Vidmar 2002). Although diverse in structure, these methods share with the jury a set of animating ideas about lay involvement in legal decision making.

Many of these ideas appear to be …

You've Got Mail: The Modern Trend Towards Universal Electronic Service Of Process, Jeremy A. Colby

Buffalo Law Review

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.

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …

Regulation Of Lawyers Without The Code, The Rules, Or The Restatement: Or, What Do Honor And Shame Have To Do With Civil Discovery Practice?, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the most striking things to notice when "looking back" on the regulation of the legal profession is the relative absence of enforceable legal sanctions for unethical behavior by lawyers. Before the promulgation in 1970 of the ABA's Model Code of Professional Responsibility, regulation of the legal profession was largely a matter of a fraternal body taking care of its own, and occasionally expelling miscreants. Now, of course, there is a complex body of law, enforced by courts and regulatory authorities with overlapping jurisdiction, that governs a substantial amount of the day-to-day activities of lawyers.

The hypothesis I explore …

A Review Of China's New Civil Evidence Law, Paul J. Schmidt

Washington International Law Journal

On December 21, 2001, China's Supreme People's Court promulgated landmark rules concerning the production and use of evidence in civil cases. These rules became effective on April 1, 2002 and apply to legal actions initiated after that date. The rules apply in all Chinese courts, from the high and intermediate level courts found at the provincial and prefecture level, down to the basic level courts found in rural counties and in urban districts. Of the eighty-three newly promulgated rules, more than half concern procedures for exchanging, confronting, investigating, or discovering evidence. Eleven are strict rules of evidence. The remainder is …

The Evolution Of Mjp, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Works

This article examines the ABA revision to Model Rules 5.5 and 8.5 in light of today's legal world where representing clients in states outside the lawyer's state of licensure is commonplace, particularly in areas of practice that involve federal law, such as environmental law, and clients with far-flung property or business transactions in numerous jurisdictions. The article notes that although the revision to these rules represents the first step in a necessary liberalization of ethical rules and statutes to permit competent lawyers to service client needs efficiently and encourages more uniformity of approach, the rules and UPL statutes still create …

Advisory Juries And Their Use And Misuse In Federal Tort Claims Act Cases, Matthew L. Zabel

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thinking Like A Lawyer, Jeffrey C. Tuomala

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Guide To Understanding Discovery Sanctions Under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 219(C) And Fashioning An Appropriate Judicial Response To Serious Discovery Misconduct, A, Sheldon Gardner, Scott William Gertz

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Solving The Nonresident Alien Due Process Paradox In Personal Jurisdiction, Robin J. Effron

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Paddling Up The Wrong Stream: Why The Stream Of Commerce Theory Is Not Part Of The Minimum Contacts Doctrine, 55 Baylor L. Rev. 503 (2003), Diane S. Kaplan

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Time Is Not On Your Side: Establishing A Consistent Statute Of Limitations For The Alien Tort Claims Act, David E. Chawes

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues that inconsistent application of limitations periods to ATCA claims does not provide sufficient and certain notice to potential parties to allow them to bring a timely claim, thereby potentially denying them an opportunity to receive a fair hearing in federal courts. Absent a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to provide consistent guidance on the applicable ATCA limitations period, Congress should amend the statute to provide a specific ten-year limitations period for most torts. Because both international and U.S. laws provide that murder committed as part of the crime of genocide has no statute of limitations," ATCA claims arising …

The Potential And Challenges Of Transnational Litigation For Feminist Concerned About Domestic Violence Here And Abroad, Merle H. Weiner

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Into The Abyss: How Party Autonomy Supports Overreaching Through The Exercise Of Unequal Bargaining Power, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 421 (2003), Pamela Edwards

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mandamus As A Weapon Of "Class Warfare" In Sixth Amendment Jurisprudence: A Case Comment On United States V. Santos, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 733 (2003), John F. Costello Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Survey Of Seventh Circuit Decisions: Class Actions, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 837 (2003), Iain D. Johnston

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Forum Selection Clauses In Diversity Actions, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 941 (2003), Kendra Johnson Panek

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Agreeing To Disagree: A Balanced Solution To Whether Parties May Contract For Expanded Judicial Review Beyond The Faa, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1005 (2003), Anthony J. Longo

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

E-Ffectuating Notice: Rio Properties V. Rio International Interlink, Aaron R. Chacker

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Revoking Our Privileges: Federal Law Enforcement's Multi-Front Assault On The Attorney-Client Privilege (And Why It Is Misguided), Lance Cole

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Diversity Class Actions, Common Relief, And The Rule Of Individual Valuation, Steven S. Gensler

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Principles For Class Action Governance, Alexandra Lahav

Faculty Articles and Papers

Class actions face a crisis of governance. The form of governance provided by Rule 23, governance by representative parties, is both vague in theory and ignored in practice. Instead, by a combination of procedural rules, judicial interpretation and common practice, the class is governed by a regime of attorney dictatorship with limited judicial oversight. This regime neither reflects the basic insight that the class and attorney do not have a traditional attorney-client relationship nor performs the task of transforming the inchoate collectivity of the class into an organization that protects and is responsive to the will of class members. This …

Destruction Of Documents Before Proceedings Commence: What Is A Court To Do?, Camille Cameron, Jonathan Liberman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The effective performance by courts of their adjudicative role depends on the availability of relevant evidence. In civil proceedings, the discovery process aims to ensure that such evidence is available. If documents that would be relevant evidence in a trial are destroyed, a fair adjudication is made difficult, if not impossible. This is so whether the destruction of documents occurs before or after proceedings commence. This article asks what a trial judge should do in a situation where relevant evidence is unavailable because one of the parties has destroyed documents before the proceedings commenced but anticipating that such proceedings were …