Civil Procedure Commons^™

Compounding Confusion And Hampering Diversity: Life After Finley And The Supplemental Jurisdiction Statute, Richard D. Freer

Faculty Articles

It has been a tough couple of years for supplemental jurisdiction. In recent decades, the doctrine, which earlier had been called the "child of necessity and sire of confusion," had become somewhat less confusing. The Supreme Court created a flurry of concern over the future of the doctrine with a pair of restrictive decisions in the late 1970s, but showed no further interest; the lower courts generally interpreted those holdings narrowly. With exceptions in a couple of areas, the application of supple­mental jurisdiction in the various joinder situations became relatively clear and predictable, and the doctrine played a major role …

Grasping At Burnt Straws: The Disaster Of The Supplemental Jurisdiction Statute, Thomas C. Arthur, Richard Freer

Faculty Articles

Ah, the strawman model! Where would Professors Rowe, Burbank, and Mengler be without it? At a minimum, they would have a much shorter article. If Professor Freer in fact torched the entire farm, it is because there was so much dry straw lying around after the three drafters fin­ished tilting with the strawmen they created in their response to Professor Freer's article. The drafters spend more than half of their article arguing the irrelevant points that a statute was needed after Finley, that the stat­ute was consistent with recommendations of the Federal Courts Study Committee, and that Professor Freer …

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 …

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 …

Special Problems In Civil Procedure - Complex Litigation, Francis H. Hare Jr., Judge Robert M. Parker, Gerald A. Connell, Mary Kay Kane

University of Richmond Law Review Symposium

"Organization and Presentation of a Complex Case" lecture given by Francis H. Hare Jr., a partner in the law firm of Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton, in Birmingham, Alabama.

"Judicial Management of Complex Cases" lecture given by the Honorable Robert M. Parker, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

"Complex Litigation in the Public Sector" lecture given by Gerald A. Connell, a member of the firm of Baker & Hostetler, in Washington, D.C.

"The Future of Complex Litigation" lecture given by Mary Kay Kane, academic dean and Professor of Law at Hastings College …

Rule 11 And Factually Frivolous Claims-- The Goal Of Cost Minimization And The Client's Duty To Investigate, James E. Ward, Iv

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note examines the duty Rule 11 creates and its allocation between attorneys and their clients from an economic perspective. Part II examines Rule 11's historical purpose of deterring frivolous claims and traces the roots of the duty the Rule imposes on attorneys to achieve this purpose. Part III discusses how Rule 11 ideally should function in a society with perfect information about the cost of frivolous claims to the judicial system compared to the cost of deterring such claims, and determines that an optimal Rule would minimize the sum of these costs. Given the information constraints of the real …

Pragmatism Without Politics -- A Half Measure Of Authority For Jurisdictional Common Law, Gene R. Shreve

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action, Douglas Scherer, John Dunne

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Law, Honorable Leon D. Lazer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Home Rule

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pre-Emption Of Local Law By State Legislature

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Congress's Paramount Role In Setting The Scope Of Federal Jurisdiction, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Article III presents a conundrum for scholars seeking a coherent explanation of the federal courts' role in our system of government. On the one hand, the framers set up the judiciary as a separate branch with jurisdiction over federal law and other matters of federal interest. They granted federal judges life tenure and undiminishable salary in order to preserve judicial independence from executive and legislative pressure. It is evident from these provisions that the framers saw a need for a strong national judiciary. At the same time, article III explicitly leaves to Congress the decision whether to create any lower …

University Of Richmond Law Review

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Work Product, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article analyzes the traditional and law & economics explanations purporting to justify the exclusion of work product materials from discovery. It argues that none of these arguments are well founded and that, instead, the privilege increases costs and decreases the system's ability to produce appropriate settlements and accurate fact finding. To the extent that the privilege serves legitimate ends, narrower and more narrowly tailored protections would provide the necessary protection.

A Comparison Of Civil Procedure Practices In Products Liability Actions Between The United States And Japan: Underlying Reasons For Basic Differences, Akio Hayashi

LLM Theses and Essays

Both the U.S. and Japan are highly industrialized countries and many of the same products are used in both countries. So, why is there such a large difference in the number of products liability suits filed?

The present work explores the differences in the American and Japanese legal systems with a focus on products liability claims. The conclusion will show that it is the difference in the two countries applicable civil procedures that explain the disparity in suits.

Against An Elite Federal Judiciary: Comments On The Report Of The Federal Courts Study Committee, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

No doubt some reform of the federal courts is essential if they are to cope with the proliferation of litigation over the past thirty years and the resulting "congestion, delay, expense, and expansion" in the federal courts. While the problem may not amount to an "impending crisis", the burgeoning caseload surely poses a threat, at least in the long run, to the ability of the federal courts to function effectively. The hard question is not whether something should be done, but what to do about it. There is no shortage of interesting ideas. Some of the ideas that clamor for …

1992: High Time For American Lawyers To Learn From Europe, Or Roscoe Pound's 1906 Address Revisited, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Shows how the key points Roscoe Pound made in his famous law reform address point to foreign law study for future reform.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Civil Procedure And Practice, George J. Dancigers, Michelle Redavid Rack

University of Richmond Law Review

This article reviews recent developments and changes in legislation, case law, and Virginia Supreme Court Rules affecting civil litigation. The scope of the paper does not extend to criminal procedure or topics unique to equity practice.

Survey Of Civil Jurisdiction In Indian Country 1990, Sandra Hansen Esq.

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Crisis In The Federal Courts, Lauren K. Robel

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.