Evidence Commons^™

Principles, Politics And Privilege: How The Crime-Fraud Exception Can Preserve The Strength Of The Attorney-Client Privilege For Government Lawyers And Their Clients, Michael W. Glenn

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Enforcing Compliance With Constitutionally-Required Disclosures: A Proposed Rule, Emmet G. Sullivan

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

To provide a striking example of the need for a federal disclosure rule, in Part I, I briefly summarize a report on the discovery abuses that occurred in the case of United States v. Theodore F. Stevens. In Part II, I describe efforts beginning in 2003 to amend Rule 16. In Part III, I provide an overview of the local district court disclosure rules and standing orders nationwide. Part III also provides the proposed rule now being considered for adoption by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

New Rules Of War In The Battle Of The Experts: Amending The Expert Witness Disqualification Test For Conflicts Of Interest, Nina A. Vershuta

Brooklyn Law Review

In civil litigation, the big business of retaining experts has raised concerns about the integrity of the adversarial process and undermined the role that expert testimony plays at trial. Due to a rising demand for expert testimony, it is common for the same expert to testify for opposing clients. When a client hires an expert who has been previously retained by that client’s adversary, a conflict of interest arises. Such experts may share confidential information with their new client to the detriment of the former client—triggering the expert disqualification test for conflicts of interest. Most state and federal courts do …

Sampling And Reliability In Class Action Litigation, Hillel J. Bavli

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

In this Article, I explain my conclusions in Aggregating for Accuracy in non-mathematical terms, and underscore certain implications with respect to class action litigation and considerations in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo. I begin by describing the building blocks of my analysis—the concepts of reliability and accuracy in the law.

Section 276 Misconstrued: The Failure To Properly Interpret And Apply Canada's Rape Shield Provisions, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Despite the vintage of Canada’s rape shield provisions (which in their current manifestation have been in force since 1992), some trial judges continue to misinterpret and/or misapply the Criminal Code provisions limiting the use of evidence of a sexual assault complainant’s other sexual activity. These errors seem to flow from a combination of factors including a general misunderstanding on the part of some trial judges as to what section 276 requires and a failure on the part of some trial judges to properly identify, and fully remove, problematic assumptions about sex and gender from their analytical approach to the use …

2015 Survey Of Rhode Island Law: Cases And Public Laws Of Note, Roger Williams University Law Review Staff

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Flaws In The Justice System: Examining The Angel Cordero Case, Rose C. Itzcovitz

Capstones

This article examines a case in criminal law that started 17 years ago and has yet to be resolved. Despite a plethora of mounting evidence, including a confession, more than a dozen witnesses, a proven false alibi, impeaching evidence against police and DNA evidence, Bronx-born Angel Cordero's conviction has yet to be overturned. The article breaks down what went wrong in the initial trial, discusses Cordero's multiple appeals and takes a broader look at what needs to change in today's judicial system.

Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of "Sexually Violent Predator" Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

In its 1997 opinion, Kansas v. Hendricks, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that reflected a new model of civil commitment. The targets of this new commitment law were dubbed “Sexually Violent Predators” (SVPs), and the Court upheld indefinite detention of these individuals on the assumption that there is a psychiatrically distinct class of individuals who, unlike typical recidivists, have a mental condition that impairs their ability to refrain from violent sexual behavior. And, more specifically, the Court assumed that the justice system could reliably identify the true “predators,” those for whom this unusual and extraordinary deprivation of liberty …

Inmates’ E-Mails With Their Attorneys: Off-Limits For The Government?, Amelia H. Barry

Catholic University Law Review

The attorney-client privilege is vital to inmates who otherwise have limited opportunities for private communications in prison. Traditionally, inmates have only been able to communicate with their attorneys via in-person visits, phone calls, and mailed letters. As federal inmates have begun using e-mail to converse with their attorneys, courts have had to determine if these conversations are protected by the attorney-client privilege. This Comment discusses courts’ approaches to this question, many of which have found that inmates’ e-mail communications with their attorneys are not privileged because by using the federal prison e-mail system, which warns users that conversations can be …

Negotiator's Nook: The Ins And Outs Of Effective Negotiation, David Spratt

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

E-Discovery 2.0, Lumen N. Mulligan, Joyce Isaacs

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Weatherford V. Bursey: "Surreptitious Invasion… Into The Legal Camp Of The Defense", Paul H. Voss

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Congressional Policy For Work Product Protection In Congressional Investigations, Jay Brody

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note examines the conflict between congressional investigative powers and the work product doctrine, advocating for a balanced approach that considers the nature of the investigation. It argues that the type of congressional investigation—legislative, oversight, or investigative—should determine the level of work product protection applied, ensuring both effective governance and legal fairness.

The Sanction Provision Of The New California Civil Discovery Act, Section 2023: Will It Make A Difference Or Is It Just Another "Paper Tiger"? , Timothy Michael Donovan

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Survey Of Illinois Law: Waiver Of The Attorney-Client Privilege And Work Product Protection, 37 S. Ill. U. L.J. 825 (2013), Ralph Ruebner, Katarina Durcova

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Effective January 1, 2013, two new Illinois Supreme Court rules clarify and limit the waiver of the attorney-client privilege and work product protection rule. Illinois Rule of Evidence 502 ("IRE 502"), which spells out the limitations on waiver, is accompanied by a "clawback provision" in Illinois Supreme Court Rule 201(p) ("Rule 201(p)") that details the procedural steps a disclosing party should take to successfully assert the privilege following an inadvertent discovery disclosure. Additionally, these changes clarify the mandatory duty of the receiving party. IRE 502 was modeled on Federal Rule of Evidence 502 ("FRE 502") and Rule 201(p) was modeled …

Law And Justice On The Small Screen, Jessica Silbey

Books

'Law and Justice on the Small Screen' is a wide-ranging collection of essays about law in and on television. In light of the book's innovative taxonomy of the field and its international reach, it will make a novel contribution to the scholarly literature about law and popular culture. Television shows from France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and the United States are discussed. The essays are organised into three sections: (1) methodological questions regarding the analysis of law and popular culture on television; (2) a focus on genre studies within television programming (including a subsection on reality television), and …

Testimony For Sale: The Law And Ethics Of Snitches And Experts, George C. Harris

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

California's Opportunity To Create Historical Precedent Regarding A Mediated Settlement Agreement's Effect On Mediation Confidentiality And Arbitrability , Susan Nauss Exon

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Confidentiality serves as a cornerstone of mediation. The public policy underlying confidentiality is the promotion of candid communications between disputing parties. As explained in this article, mediation confidentiality affects more than just communication. It affects other important mediation values, such as party self-determination and mediator impartiality. Mediation confidentiality affects parties' ability to enforce their mediated agreements. Finally, confidentiality affects multiple dispute resolution processes, as seen by the interrelated nature of mediation and arbitration in the seminal case of Fair v. Bakhtiari.

Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill

Pepperdine Law Review

My focus is on an apparent trend at the intersection of the fields of evidentiary standards for expert admissibility and professional responsibility, namely the eagerness to place more ethical responsibilities on lawyers to vet their proffered expertise to ensure its reliability. My reservations about this trend are not only based on its troubling implications for the lawyer’s duty as a zealous advocate, which already has obvious limitations (because of lawyers’ conflicting duties to the court), but are also based on the problematic aspects of many reliability determinations. To expect attorneys - and this is what the proponents of a duty …

Blaming As A Social Process: The Influence Of Character And Moral Emotion On Blame, Janice Nadler

Faculty Working Papers

For the most part, the law eschews the role of moral character in legal blame. But when we observe an actor who causes harm, legal and psychological blame processes are in tension. Procedures for legal blame assume an assessment of the actor's mental state, and ultimately of responsibility, that is independent of the moral character of the actor. In this paper, I present experimental evidence to suggest that perceptions of intent, foreseeability, and possibly causation can be colored by independent reasons for thinking the actor is a bad person, and are mediated by the experience of negative moral emotion. Our …

Hiring Teams, Firms, And Lawyers: Evidence Of The Evolving Relationship In The Corporate Legal Market, Michele M. Destefano, John C. Coates, Ashish Nanda, David B. Wilkins

Articles

How are relationships between corporate clients and law firms evolving? Drawing on interview and survey data from 166 chief legal officers of S&P 500 companies from 2006-2007, we find that-contrary to standard depictions of corporate client-provider relationships-(1) large companies have relationships with ten to twenty preferred providers; (2) these relationships continue to be enduring, and (3) clients focus not only on law firm platforms and lead partners, but also on teams and departments within preferred providers, allocating work to these subunits at rival firms over time and following "star" lawyers, especially if they move as part of a team. The …

Tangible "Intangibles" And Other Mysteries: A Critique Of The D.C. Circuit's Expansion Of Work Product Doctrine In United States V. Deloitte Llp, Brian L. Blaylock

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Lawyers Judging Experts: Oversimplifying Science And Undervaluing Advocacy To Construct An Ethical Duty?, David S. Caudill

Working Paper Series

My focus is on an apparent trend at the intersection of the fields of evidentiary standards for expert admissibility and professional responsibility, namely the eagerness to place more ethical responsibilities on lawyers to vet their proffered expertise to ensure its reliability. My reservations about this trend are not only based on its troubling implications for the lawyer’s duty as a zealous advocate, which already has obvious limitations (because of lawyers’ conflicting duties to the court), but are also based on the problematic aspects of many reliability determinations. To expect attorneys—and this is what the proponents of a duty to vet …

Evidence - Privilege Law - How Arkansas's New Rule Of Evidence Codifies "Selective Waiver" Of The Attorney-Client Privilege And Work-Product Protection And An Argument For A More Moderate Approach, Jonathan D. Mcfadden

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making Stuff Up, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Beginning with an article in this Journal almost thirty years ago, Professor Underwood continues to research and write about legal ethics and litigation. In this Commentary, he offers a witty look at several cases where, in his opinion, the judge allowed improper arguments to the jury.

Waving Goodbye To Waiver? Not So Fast: Inadvertent Disclosure, Waiver Of The Attorney-Client Privilege, And Federal Rule Of Evidence 502, Elizabeth King

Campbell Law Review

Waiver of the attorney-client privilege due to inadvertent disclosure is an important issue that courts and litigants have grappled with for a long time. With electronic discovery becoming increasingly common, and with electronic privilege reviews replacing paper reviews, the issue takes on greater importance. The risk of inadvertently disclosing privileged or protected information is heightened in electronic discovery because of the very nature of electronic information. For example, although a party makes an effort to segregate and delete privileged information from a computer drive prior to producing the electronic documents to the opposing party, the deleted files may still be …

Constructing Systemic Safeguards Against Informant Perjury, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Reliance on an informant's testimony as the primary basis for charging and convicting the accused is fraught with problems. While the hypothetical explicitly addresses the ethical dilemmas defense counsel faces when her client is trading false testimony in exchange for a reduced charge and shorter sentence, the hypothetical also implicitly illustrates the inadequacies of our criminal justice system's current handling of testimony from cooperating witnesses.

The focus on the ethical, and perhaps moral, obligations of Lawyer representing a potentially perjurious Client begs larger questions. Are there safeguards the prosecutor's office could employ to ensure that the trial prosecutor, who is …

Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception To The Attorney-Client Privilege: A Proposal To Remedy The Disparity In Protections For Civil And Criminal Privilege Holders, Cary Bricker

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

When The Lawyer Knows The Client Is Guilty: Client Confessions In Legal Ethics, Popular Culture, And Literature, Michael Asimow, Richard H. Weisberg

Articles

The article explores the ethical dilemma faced by criminal defense lawyers when they know their client is factually guilty but the client insists on a vigorous defense. It examines the tension between the lawyer’s duty of zealous representation and the duty of candor toward the court, proposing a compromise that allows lawyers discretion to choose between strong or weak adversarial approaches based on the context. The analysis draws on historical cases, such as the Courvoisier case of 1840 and the modern case of Steven Feldman, as well as insights from popular culture and literary sources, to argue that the discretionary …

Qualcomm Inc. V. Broadcom Corp.: 9,259,985 Reasons To Comply With Discovery Requests, Kristen Mcneal

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Evolving technology has advanced communication throughout the business industry. Corporations use various communication methods to initiate conversation, propose business ventures, and relay correspondence from one place to another. Quite naturally, with the development of different means of communication, various innovations in the legal profession have materialized and gained popularity. One of these innovations is electronic discovery.