Legal Remedies Commons^™

Commercial Bribery: Choice And Measurement Within A Remedies Smorgasbord, Doug Rendleman

Doug Rendleman

Searching for the most suitable money remedy for a simple commercial bribe promptly lands a lawyer, judge, professor, student, or researcher in a remedial smorgasbord. De- emphasizing injunctions, commercial bribery offers a spectrum of monetary remedies. The plaintiff has two defendants, the briber and the bribee. He has two major remedies, damages and restitution. The overlapping policies consist of compensating the plaintiff, preventing the defendants’ unjust enrichment, deterring the defendants and others, and punishing the defendants. Courts implement these policies with compensatory damages, restitution, and punitive damages. A bribe can be returned as damages or restitution, a significant distinction. Punishment …

Erie Step Zero, Alexander A. Reinert

Faculty Articles

Courts and commentators have assumed that the Erie doctrine, while originating in diversity cases, applies in all cases whatever the basis for federal jurisdiction. Thus, when a federal court asserts jurisdiction over pendent state law claims through the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction in a federal question case, courts regularly apply the Erie doctrine to resolve conflict between federal and state law. This Article shows why this common wisdom is wrong.

To understand why, it is necessary to return to Erie’s goals, elaborated over time by the U.S. Supreme Court. Erie and its progeny are steeped in diversity-driven policy concerns: concerns …

Show Me The Money: Determining A Celebrity’S Fair Market Value In A Right Of Publicity Action, Cody Reaves

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

As the power of celebrity continues to grow in the age of social media, so too does the price of using a celebrity’s name and likeness to promote a product. With the newfound ease of using Twitter, Facebook, and even print media to use a celebrity’s identity in conjunction with a product or company, right of publicity concerns arise. When a company uses a celebrity’s name and likeness without the celebrity’s authorization to market or sell a product, companies open themselves up to right of publicity suits. Many of these cases settle out of court. But when these cases do …

Aggregation As Disempowerment: Red Flags In Class Action Settlements, Howard M. Erichson

Notre Dame Law Review

Class action critics and proponents cling to the conventional wisdom that class actions empower claimants. Critics complain that class actions over-empower claimants and put defendants at a disadvantage, while proponents defend class actions as essential to consumer protection and rights enforcement. This Article explores how class action settlements sometimes do the opposite. Aggregation empowers claimants’ lawyers by consolidating power in the lawyers’ hands. Consolidation of power allows defendants to strike deals that benefit themselves and claimants’ lawyers while disadvantaging claimants. This Article considers the phenomenon of aggregation as disempowerment by looking at specific settlement features that benefit plaintiffs’ counsel and …

Pain And Suffering Damages In Personal Injury Cases: An Empirical Study, Yun-Chien Chang, Theodore Eisenberg, Tsung Hsien Li, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Many jurisdictions award pain and suffering damages, yet it is difficult for judges or juries to quantify pain. Several jurisdictions, such as California, cap pain and suffering damages or other noneconomic damages, and legal scholars have proposed ways to control such damages. Reforms and proposals, however, have been based on limited empirical evidence. It remains an open question whether components of economic damages explain pain and suffering damages. This study employs a unique dataset of Taiwan district court cases and uses detailed information on the components of pecuniary damages. Pain and suffering damages highly correlate with the plaintiff’s medical expenses, …

Frivolous Action Filings In California Courts, California Research Bureau

California Agencies

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Logan On Trump And Libel Law 01-03-2017, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Civil Redress And Historical Memory Act Of 2029: A Legislative Proposal, William J. Aceves

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

During the extant “War on Terror,” U.S. and foreign nationals who did not engage in hostilities were detained and mistreated abroad by the United States or by other countries with the acquiescence of the United States. These individuals were accused of being terrorists or were suspected of associating with terror groups, but they were, in fact, innocent. They were eventually released and were never charged by the United States with any crime. Despite their innocence, the United States has failed to provide them with any form of redress for their mistreatment. The Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations refused to apologize …

Winning The Battle But Losing The War: Towards A More Consistent Approach To Prevailing Party Fee Shifting In The Contractural Context, John R. Schleppenback

Florida A & M University Law Review

As a general matter, history has not been very kind to losers. In the turmoil of the Middle Ages, loss on the battlefield could also mean the looting of one's property, the sacking of one's home, and potentially even the assault of one's spouse. The nineteenth century was the era of "to the victors belong the spoils," meaning that an electoral win allowed the prevailing political party a complete monopoly on political appointments and government contracts to the exclusion of the loyal opposition. Even today, professional athletes would sooner face anonymity than defeat on the playing field, living by the …

Cybersecurity, Identity Theft, And Standing Law: A Framework For Data Breaches Using Substantial Risk In A Post-Clapper World, James C. Chou

American University National Security Law Brief

No abstract provided.

Legal Resources On The Trump Immigration Ban, Center For Constitutional Law

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This resource bibliography provides legal resources related to the litigation over the presidential immigration ban issued on Jan. 27, 2017. These resources include the executive order, key court decisions, and explanatory commentary.

The Middleman - Intermediary Liability: United States, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Professor Marketa Trimble appeared on a panel at the 120th International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property World Conference hosted in Sydney, Australia on October 16, 2017. This panel session discussed intermediary liability in the digital world in key jurisdictions, including the availability of site blocking injunctions and address the practical effects and inherent limitations of such injunctions in the digital era.

Transnational Enforcement, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Winston & Strawn and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology hosted a seminar on Global Strategies for IP on September 14, 2017 in Palo Alto, California. Professor Marketa Trimble joined an esteemed group of panelists and guests lecturing on the underlying problem of IP infringement outside the U.S., its impact on U.S. companies, and available remedies.

Calculating Damages In An Uncertain World, John F. Preis

Law Faculty Publications

There is a rule in the world of remedies that has always struck me as unfair. The rule, generally speaking, is that damages are not available unless they can be proven with certainty. For example, suppose that I own a pub and hire a karaoke DJ for Friday night. Karaoke is popular in my town and I advertise the event widely. On Friday afternoon, however, the DJ breaches and I’m left without entertainment. During the night, patrons show up and ask about the DJ. Many of them express disappointment; some decide to remain and have a couple drinks but some …

Taking It To The Bank: Creating A New Constitutional Standard And Using Blue Carbon Banking To Compensate The Miccosukee Tribe For The Federal "Taking" Of Their Tribal Lands, Amy Judkins

Florida A & M University Law Review

The typical remedy for a property owner whose property interests have been diminished from government regulations—as is the case with the federal government's regulation of the Miccosukee's tribal lands—would be compensation sought under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The last clause of the Fifth Amendment— the Takings Clause—provides that "private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation." The Supreme Court has explained that the purpose of the Takings Clause is to prevent the government from "forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by …

A Tort In Search Of A Remedy: Prying Open The Courthouse Doors For Legal Malpractice Victims, Susan S. Fortney

Fordham Law Review

Using this broad connotation of justice, this Article questions whether many victims of legal malpractice are denied access to justice. In writing about the regulatory function of legal malpractice as a tort, Professor John Leubsdorf argues that legal malpractice relates to three important functions of the law of lawyering: “[D]elineating the duties of lawyers, creating appropriate incentives and disincentives for lawyers in their dealings with clients and others, and providing access to remedies for those injured by improper lawyer behavior.” Arguably, persons injured by lawyer misconduct are denied access to justice if our civil liability system does not provide them …

Clarifying Uncertainty: Why We Need A Small Claims Copyright Court, John Zuercher

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This article is concerned with the question of whether copyright law in the United States is currently equipped to achieve its original goal, set within the U.S. Constitution, to promote innovation and progress. This article suggests that copyright law is not equipped to achieve this goal because a paradox inherent in copyright law is hindering copyright litigation and causing uncertainty. The paradox is found in 17 U.S.C. § 106, which protects transformative works that are derivative, and 17 U.S.C. § 107, which protects transformative works as fair use. Ideally, the federal courts would solve this dilemma by interpreting the appropriate …

Incorporating Social Justice Into The Law School Curriculum With A Hybrid Doctrinal/Writing Course, 50 J. Marshall L. Rev. 221 (2017), Rosa Castello

UIC Law Review

Educating future lawyers is about more than just teaching them substantive law. We are preparing professionals who will go out into our world and shape and affect it in deep and impacting ways. They will make law, enforce law, determine policy, defend people, advocate, and influence lives and businesses. Therefore, any thorough law school education should teach social justice and encourage students to become more engaged in activism. One way to incorporate social justice into the law school curriculum is to offer specific courses focused on social justice. However, administrators may be concerned about demand for such classes or ability …

The Uncertain Case For Appraisal Arbitrage, Jay B. Kesten

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Search For A Grand Unified Theory Of Tort Law., Scott Hershovitz

Reviews

Theorists like to do a lot with a little. And not just because simple theories seem more elegant: we deepen our understanding when we learn that disparate phenomena are linked together. In physics, for example, the theory of thermodynamics showed us the relationship between mechanics and heat. In economics, the theory of the firm showed us that, across industries that look nothing alike, a simple principle helps explain the organization of economic activity. Of course, there is no guarantee that the disparate phenomena we suspect are linked actually are. Particle physicists continue to search for a Grand Unified Theory, which …

Challenging Nonbank Sifi Designations: Ge, Metlife, And The Need For Reform, Drita Dokic

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created, among other things, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), an entity within the U.S. Department of the Treasury tasked with assessing and mitigating financial risk. Financial institutions with over $50 billion in assets are automatically deemed “systemically important.” However, under the Dodd-Frank Act, FSOC has the authority to designate non-bank companies engaged in financial activity as systemically important as well. Once designated as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI), these companies are subject to enhanced regulation and supervision by the Federal Reserve. Because the costs associated with such enhanced regulation …

Testing The White Hat Effect In Patent Litigation, Bernard Chao, Roderick O’Dorisio

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Ideally, juries assess cases on the evidence presented at trial. To the extent that they are unrelated to the merits, the identities of the parties or their individual stories should not matter. But jurors are human, and both academics and practicing lawyers have long believed that how parties frame their cases to the jury can influence outcomes.' We examine two such frames common to patent law. First, we look at whether accused infringers can improve their chances of prevailing by being the aggressor. Prior studies have observed that accused infringers that file declaratory judgment actions to vindicate their rights win …

Time Is Money: An Empirical Assessment Of Non-Economic Damages Arguments, John Campbell, Bernard Chao, Christopher Robertson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Non-economic damages (pain and suffering) are the most significant and variable components of liability. Our survey of fifty-one U.S. jurisdictions shows wide heterogeneity in whether attorneys may quantify damages as time-units of suffering (per diem) or demand a specific amount (lump sum). Either sort of large number could exploit an irrational anchoring effect. We performed a realistic, online, video-based experiment with 732 human subjects. We replicated prior work showing that large lump sum demands drive larger jury verdicts, but surprisingly found no effect of similarly-sized per diem anchors. We did find per diem effects on binary liability outcomes, and thus …

Contracts, Causation, And Clarity, Daniel P. O'Gorman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Network Investigation Techniques: Government Hacking And The Need For Adjustment In The Third-Party Doctrine, Eduardo R. Mendoza

St. Mary's Law Journal

Modern society is largely dependent on technology, and legal discovery is no longer limited to hard-copy, tangible documents. The clash of technology and the law is an exciting, yet dangerous phenomena; dangerous because our justice system desperately needs technological progress. The clash between scientific advancement and the search for truth has recently taken an interesting form—government hacking. The United States Government has increasingly used Network Investigation Techniques (NITs) to target suspects in criminal investigations. NITs operate by identifying suspects who have taken affirmative steps to conceal their identity while browsing the Internet. The hacking technique has become especially useful to …

Disgorgement Of Defendant's Gains From "Opportunistic" Breach Of Contract: Its Fit In Rhode Island, Kelsey A. Hayward

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Blue Lives Have Always Mattered: The Usurping Of Hate Crime Laws For An Unintended And Unnecessary Purpose, Lisa M. Olson

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Class Actions, Civil Rights, And The National Injunction, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

This essay is a response to Professor Samuel Bray’s article proposing a blanket prohibition against injunctions that enjoin a defendant’s conduct with respect to nonparties. He argues that national injunctions are illegitimate under Article III and traditional equity and result in a number of difficulties.

This Response argues, from a normative lens, that Bray’s proposed ban on national injunctions should be rejected. Such a bright-line rule against national injunctions is too blunt an instrument to address the complexity of our tripartite system of government, our pluralistic society and our democracy. Although national injunctions may be imperfect and crude forms of …

A Tort In Search Of A Remedy: Prying Open The Courthouse Doors For Legal Malpractice Victims, Susan S. Fortney

Fordham Law Review

Using this broad connotation of justice, this Article questions whether many victims of legal malpractice are denied access to justice. In writing about the regulatory function of legal malpractice as a tort, Professor John Leubsdorf argues that legal malpractice relates to three important functions of the law of lawyering: “[D]elineating the duties of lawyers, creating appropriate incentives and disincentives for lawyers in their dealings with clients and others, and providing access to remedies for those injured by improper lawyer behavior.” Arguably, persons injured by lawyer misconduct are denied access to justice if our civil liability system does not provide them …

The Weaponized Lawsuit Against The Media: Litigation Funding As A New Threat To Journalism, Lili Levi

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.