Civil Procedure Commons^™

Civil Justice Delay And Empirical Data: A Response To Professor Heise, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

One decade ago, Congress undertook an ambitious, controversial effort to reduce expense and delay in the federal civil justice system. The Civil Justice Reform Act ("CJRA") of 1990 instituted unprecedented nationwide experimentation by requiring that all ninety-four federal district courts scrutinize their civil and criminal dockets and then promulgate and apply numerous procedures which district judges believed would save cost and time in civil litigation. Congress also prescribed rigorous assessment of the six principles, guidelines, and techniques of litigation management and expense and delay reduction that federal districts in fact adopted and enforced. Lawmakers provided for an expert, independent evaluator …

Judges, Juries, And Reviewing Courts, William V. Dorsaneo Iii

SMU Law Review

The purposes of this paper are to evaluate the standard and scope of appellate evidentiary review of fact findings made by juries and trial judges under Texas law, and to describe and to criticize the recent treatment of the duty and causation issues in tort litigation by the Texas Supreme Court. The court has not acknowledged that the standards of evidentiary review applied to jury findings have been changed and one prominent scholar has concluded otherwise, but an examination of the court's recent jurisprudence reveals that significant changes have been made in the application of the no-evidence standard of review …

Adrift On The Sea Of Indeterminacy, Michael H. Gottesman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Today's conflicts scholars no doubt consider themselves a diverse bunch, with widely differing views about how law should be chosen in multistate disputes. But from the trenches, most of them look alike. Each waxes eloquent about the search for the perfect solution-the most intellectually and morally satisfying choice of law for each dispute-and each ends the theorizing by embracing some proposition that will prove wholly indeterminate in practice.

Judicial Lobbying At The Wto: The Debate Over The Use Of Amicus Curiae Briefs And The U.S. Experience, Padideh Ala'i

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The continuing debate over the use of amicus curiae briefs at the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) raises interesting questions about the influence of the U.S. legal system on the WTO dispute settlement process. Specifically, it brings to the surface differences between legal cultures and the fact that the U.S. legal culture with its emphasis on procedure is not readily transferable to the WTO. Comparing the controversy regarding the use of amicus curiae briefs before WTO Panels and the Appellate Body with the history and evolution of the institution of amicus curiae before the U.S. Supreme Court may help explain the …

Symposium: Multidistrict Litigation And Aggregation Alternatives: Foreword, Howard M. Erichson

Faculty Scholarship

On March 30, 2001, a somewhat surprising discussion took place among two judges, two plaintiffs' lawyers, a defense lawyer, and a legal scholar. The occasion was a Seton Hall Law Review symposium on federal multidistrict litigation ("MDL"). What made the discussion surprising was not what the participants said of their experiences with MDL, but rather the extent to which they discussed things other than MDL. Much of the discussion addressed state court litigation beyond the reach of MDL, and federal court aggregation techniques other than MDL. While the presenters left no doubt that MDL retains a central role in the …

Benign Neglect Reconsidered, Richard L. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Coattail Class Actions: Reflections On Microsoft, Tobacco, And The Mixing Of Public And Private Lawyering In Mass Litigation , Howard M. Erichson

Faculty Scholarship

Ask anyone who follows legal news to name the two biggest litigation news stories in the United States at the start of the twenty-first century, and they will answer without blinking: Microsoft and tobacco. The Microsoft litigation, they will tell you, claims a place in the pantheon of antitrust landmarks that includes Standard Oil, Alcoa, and AT&T. The tobacco litigation is the most massive in a string of mass torts including asbestos, Dalkon Shield, and breast implants; it is arguably the most important public health matter ever litigated. Microsoft and tobacco each fit so well and so interestingly in their …

Identifying Real Dichotomies Underlying The False Dichotomy: Twenty-First Century Mediation In An Eclectic Regime, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Some people (lawyers, scholars, judges, dispute resolvers, policymakers) are more concerned about fidelity to procedural protocols while others are more concerned with the substantive rules governing disputes and substantive outcomes. Those in the dispute resolution community preferring facilitation tend to be proceduralists. For them, the observance of proper procedure is a high goal, perhaps the dominant goal. They reason, often implicitly, that adherence to the rules of procedure is the essence of neutrality, fairness, and the proper role of a dispute resolving apparatus. At some level, usually subconscious, there is a post-modern philosophical aspect of this preference. Because humans cannot …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 1999 and 2000.

Forum Non Conveniens In Federal Statutory Cases, Keith A. Rowley, Lonny Sheinkopf Hoffman

Scholarly Works

This article, previously published in Volume 49 of the Emory Law Journal, examines the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens in cases in which the plaintiff asserts a right to relief under federal law. The arguments we advance - particularly our claim that the federal doctrine of forum non conveniens can be better understood not as turning on matters of convenience, as the formal doctrine suggests, but on an assessment of the relative sovereign interests in adjudicating the dispute - remain relevant to an understanding of the federal doctrine. The paper, thus, may be of interest to practitioners, academics and …

Utilizing Statistics And Bellwether Trials In Mass Torts: What Do The Constitution And Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure Permit?, R. Joseph Barton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Traditional judicial mechanisms that preserve litigants' rights to due process and a jury trial challenge courts to provide litigants their day in court in an efficient and timely manner. This challenge is made exponentially harder where the litigation concerns tortious conduct affecting a large number of persons and giving rise to latent injury. In response to the recent increase in mass tort filings, courts have sought an alternative means of adjudication-the extrapolation of a statistically average, representative plaintiff to other plaintiffs. This Note examines the problems associated with mass tort actions and how two circuit courts of appeals have implemented …

Trial Practice And Procedure, C. Frederick Overby, Jason Crawford, Teresa T. Abell, Matthew E. Cook

Mercer Law Review

This survey period yielded several notable decisions covering the professional malpractice affidavit/pleading requirement, renewal actions, attorney-client relations, and the summary judgment standard. Refinements in the areas of insurance practice, jury qualifications, releases, default judgment, and privileges lend important guidance to practitioners, judges, and scholars in the area of trial practice and procedure. The most significant legislative development of trial practice and procedure addressed the longstanding "vanishing venue" doctrine.

Confidentiality, Privilege And Rule 408: The Protection Of Mediation Proceedings In Federal Court, Charles W. Ehrhardt

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Jury And Scientific Evidence, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

Read court decisions and commentaries from 100, or evenfive years ago, and you will find that experts and scientific evidence were causing problems then just as they are causing problems now. I do not think that Daubert, Kumho Tire, or any change in a rule of evidence will keep expert scientific testimony from being a difficult area for the legal system. Yet we must still ask: "What are the best terms on which to deal with scientific experts, and how can weimprove the system?"

The New Rules Of Federal Appellate Procedure: Changes In Style And Substance, Warren W. Harris

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

This article discusses the substantive changes to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 23(F): Interlocutory Appeals Of Class Action Certification Decisions, Kenneth S. Gould

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

This article discusses the significance of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f). The article's review of Rule 23(f) includes the importance of class certification decisions and appellate review of certifications, historical imitations on appellate review of certifications, rationale for allowing appeal of interlocutory certification, operation of rule 23(f), the first application of the rule, and prospects of Rule 23(f) achieving its goals.

Juries, Hindsight, And Punitive Damage Awards: Failures Of A Social Science Case For Change, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

In their recent Arizona Law Review article entitled What Juries Can't Do Well: The Jury's Performance As a Risk Manager,' Professors Reid Hastie and W. Kip Viscusi purport to show that juries are likely to do a poor job in setting punitive damages, largely because jurors cannot avoid the influence of what is called "hindsight bias," or the tendency to see the likelihood of an event higher in retrospect than it would have appeared before it happened. In particular, they argue that hindsight bias and other cognitive biases undermine the utility of jury-set punitive damage awards as risk management devices. …

City Of Chicago V. International College Of Surgeons: The Interplay Between Supplemental Jurisdiction And Cross-System Appeals, And The Impact On Federalism, Jacob Edward Daly

Mercer Law Review

In City of Chicago v. International College of Surgeons, the United States Supreme Court reversed a well-established rule in holding that federal district courts may exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims for deferential review of local administrative agency decisions.

Engaging With The State About Domestic Violence: Continuing Dilemmas And Gender Equality, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Second Look At Amended Rule 11 , Theodore C. Hirt

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Erie Doctrine Revisited: How A Conflicts Perspective Can Aid The Analysis, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

I have taught Civil Procedure for the past twenty-five years. Having returned to teaching Conflict of Laws last year, after not having taught that course since the mid-1980s, I was interested in re-examining the Erie doctrine from the vantage point of both of these subject areas. My goal was to see whether a combination of learning from these two related disciplines would introduce additional coherence into the analysis of this topic.

In one sense, the Erie doctrine and traditional choice of law determinations present analogous questions, since they both involve making a selection between competing legal rules. Choice of law …

Shopping For Judges: An Empirical Analysis Of Venue Choice In Large Chapter 11 Reorganizations, Theodore Eisenberg, Lynn M. Lopucki

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

For almost two decades, an embarrassing pattern of forum shopping has been developing in the highly visible world of big-case bankruptcy reorganization. Forum shopping--defined here as the act of filing in a court that does not serve the geographical area of the debtor's corporate headquarters--now occurs in more than half of all big-case bankruptcies. Two jurisdictions have attracted most of the forum shoppers. During the 1980s, when a large portion of the shopping was to New York, the lawyers involved asserted that New York was a natural venue because of its role as the country's financial capital and because so …

Music Theory As A Mode Of Law: The Case Of Heinrich Schenker, Esq., Wayne Alpern

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Revised Rule 55 Revisited, John T. Holleman Iv

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arbitration And Reform In Private Securities Litigation: Dealing With The Meritorious As Well As The Frivolous, Steven A. Ramirez

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bad News About Good Faith For Excess Um Carriers, Robert L. Tucker

Akron Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Robert Leflar, Judicial Process, And Choice Of Law, William L. Reynolds, William M. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Attorney-Client Privilege When The Client Is A Public Official: Litigating The Opening Act Of The Impeachment Drama, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The divided panel decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in /n re Lindsey, 158 F.3d 1263 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 466 (1998), represented a dramatic shift in that court's thinking on the question whether the attorney-client privilege protects what a government official says to his agency's counsel in confidence. Although the court of appeals in at least four previous decisions had held that a government agency client holds the same privilege any other client would under like circumstances to communicate with counsel in private, the Lindsey court took a quite different view.

Redland Soccer Club, Inc. V. Department Of The Army: The Recovery Of Medicial Monitoring Costs Under Hsca's Citizen Suit Provision, Craig A. Stevens

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.