Legal Remedies Commons^™

Law's Credibility Problem, Julia Simon-Kerr

Washington Law Review

Credibility determinations often seal people’s fates. They can determine outcomes at trial; they condition the provision of benefits, like social security; and they play an increasingly dispositive role in immigration proceedings. Yet there is no stable definition of credibility in the law. Courts and agencies diverge at the most basic definitional level in their use of the category.

Consider a real-world example. An immigration judge denies asylum despite the applicant’s plausible and unrefuted account of persecution in their country of origin. The applicant appeals, pointing to the fact that Congress enacted a “rebuttable presumption of credibility” for asylum-seekers “on appeal.” …

A Call To Abolish Determinate-Plus Sentencing In Washington, Rachel Stenberg

Washington Law Review

For certain incarcerated individuals who commit sex offenses, Washington State’s determinate-plus sentencing structure requires a showing of rehabilitation before release. This highly subjective “releasability” determination occurs after an individual has already served a standard sentence. A review of recent releasability determinations reveals sentences are often extended on arbitrary and inconsistent grounds—especially for individuals who face systemic challenges in prison due to their identity or condition. This Comment shows that the criteria to determine whether individuals are releasable is an incomplete picture of their actual experience in the carceral setting, using the distinct example of incarcerated individuals with mental illness. While …

Expanding Judicial Discretion To Grant Compassionate Release During Covid-19, Deborah Wang

Washington Law Review

In the 1980s, Congress introduced compassionate release to counteract the increased rigidity of our federal sentencing system. This mechanism allowed courts, through a motion filed by the Bureau of Prison’s director, to reduce a prisoner’s sentence if “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances warrant such a reduction. However, because the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) seldom brought these motions, few people were released early via compassionate release. At the same time, public discourse and concerns regarding mass incarceration have continued to grow, causing lawmakers to revisit and revise compassionate release through the First Step Act of 2018 to ensure that this mechanism’s potential …

Copyright’S Deprivations, Anne-Marie Carstens

Washington Law Review

This Article challenges the constitutionality of a copyright infringement remedy provided in federal copyright law: courts can order the destruction or other permanent deprivation of personal property based on its mere capacity to serve as a vehicle for infringement. This deprivation remedy requires no showing of actual nexus to the litigated infringement, no finding of willfulness, and no showing that the property’s infringing uses comprise the significant or predominant uses. These striking deficits stem from a historical fiction that viewed a tool of infringement, such as a printing plate, as the functional equivalent of an infringing copy itself. Today, though, …

Structural Barriers To Inclusion In Arbitrator Pools, Nicole G. Iannarone

Washington Law Review

Critics increasingly challenge mandatory arbitration because the pools from which decisionmakers are selected are neither diverse nor inclusive. Evaluating diversity and inclusion in arbitrator pools is difficult due to the black box nature of mandatory arbitration. This Article evaluates inclusion in arbitrator pools through a case study on securities arbitration. The Article relies upon the relatively greater transparency of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) forum. It begins by describing the unique role that small claims securities arbitration plays in maintaining investor trust and confidence in the securities markets before describing why ensuring that the FINRA arbitrator pool is both …

Hostile Restructurings, Diane L. Dick

Washington Law Review

The conventional wisdom holds that out-of-court loan restructurings are mostly consensual and collaborative. But this is no longer accurate. Highly aggressive, nonconsensual restructuring transactions—what I call “hostile restructurings”—are becoming a common feature of the capital markets. Relying on hypertechnical interpretations of loan agreements, one increasingly popular hostile restructuring method involves issuing new debt that enjoys higher priority than the existing debt; another involves transferring the most valuable collateral away from existing lenders to secure new borrowing.

These transactions are distinguishable from normal out-of-court restructurings by their use of coercive tactics to overcome not only the traditional minority lender holdout problem, …

You Are Not A Commodity: A More Efficient Approach To Commercial Privacy Rights, Benjamin T. Pardue

Washington Law Review

United States common law provides four torts for privacy invasion: (1) disclosure of private facts, (2) intrusion upon seclusion, (3) placement of a person in a false light, and (4) appropriation of name or likeness. Appropriation of name or likeness occurs when a defendant commandeers the plaintiff’s recognizability, typically for a commercial benefit. Most states allow plaintiffs who establish liability to recover defendants’ profits as damages from the misappropriation under an “unjust enrichment” theory. By contrast, this Comment argues that such an award provides a windfall to plaintiffs and contributes to suboptimal social outcomes. These include overcompensating plaintiffs and incentivizing …

The Implausibility Standard For Environmental Plaintiffs: The Twiqbal Plausibility Pleading Standard And Affirmative Defenses, Celeste Anquonette Ajayi

Washington Law Review

Environmental plaintiffs often face challenges when pleading their claims. This is due to difficulty in obtaining the particular facts needed to establish causation, and thus liability. In turn, this difficulty inhibits their ability to vindicate their rights. Prior to the shift in pleading standards created by Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, often informally referred to as “Twiqbal,” plaintiffs could assert their claims through the simplified notice pleading standard articulated in Conley v. Gibson. This allowed plaintiffs to gain access to discovery, which aided in proving their claims.

The current heightened pleading standard …

Revocation And Retribution, Jacob Schuman

Washington Law Review

Revocation of community supervision is a defining feature of American criminal law. Nearly 4.5 million people in the United States are on parole, probation, or supervised release, and 1/3 eventually have their supervision revoked, sending 350,000 to prison each year. Academics, activists, and attorneys warn that “mass supervision” has become a powerful engine of mass incarceration.

This is the first Article to study theories of punishment in revocation of community supervision, focusing on the federal system of supervised release. Federal courts apply a primarily retributive theory of revocation, aiming to sanction defendants for their “breach of trust.” However, the structure, …

Police Or Pirates? Reforming Washington's Civil Asset Forfeiture System, Jasmin Chigbrow

Washington Law Review

Civil asset forfeiture laws permit police officers to seize property they suspect is connected to criminal activity and sell or retain the property for the police department’s use. In many states, including Washington, civil forfeiture occurs independent of any criminal case—many property owners are never charged with the offense police allege occurred. Because the government is not required to file criminal charges, property owners facing civil forfeiture lack the constitutional safeguards normally guaranteed to defendants in the criminal justice system: the right to an attorney, the presumption of innocence, the government’s burden to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, …

Recalibrating Constitutional Innocence Protection, Robert J. Smith

Washington Law Review

This Article examines the constitutional nature of the right of a prisoner to receive post-conviction relief based solely on the claim that he is innocent. Part I explores innocence protection as an animating value of constitutional criminal procedure (Part I.A) and describes how developments in the way that crimes are investigated, proved, and reexamined have dislodged the trial from its place at the center of the constitutional criminal procedure universe (Part I.B). Part II explores how realigning the importance of innocence protection with the practical realities of our criminal justice system would impact the regulation of post-conviction procedures. It also …

Victimized Twice -- The Intersection Of Domestic Violence And The Workplace: Legal Reform Through Curriculum Development, Lea B. Vaughn

Articles

Domestic violence is at least a two-fold problem for American society. On the one hand, it is one of the leading causes of violence at the workplace against women. On the other, it prevents many women from attaining the economic security that would enable them to escape violence. After describing the background of this problem, this paper will canvass current legal remedies that are available to help battered women achieve economic security. This survey leads to the conclusion that the current pastiche of remedies is often ineffective because of their piecemeal approach to the problem, or because current doctrine does …

Watching The Watchdog: China's State Compensation Law As A Remedy For Procuratorial Misconduct, Keith Hand

Washington International Law Journal

In 1994, China enacted a comprehensive State Compensation Law ("SCL"). The SCL provides individuals and legal entities with the right to compensation in a limited number of situations in which they are harmed by illegal government acts. The purpose of the law is twofold: (1) to guarantee the rights of individuals and legal entities to obtain compensation and (2) to encourage state officials to exercise their powers lawfully. In theory, the SCL provides an important check on the conduct of procurators and other government officials. China's procurators serve dual roles as criminal prosecutors and as supervisors of the legal process. …

Fifra Preemption Of State Common Law Claims After Cipollone V. Liggett Group, Inc., R. David Allnutt

Washington Law Review

In Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., the Supreme Court reaffirmed a narrow application of the federal preemption doctrine where preemption would prevent a state from exercising its police powers through the common law. Cipollone marks the latest in a line of Supreme Court decisions requiring courts to employ a presumption against preemption if congressional intent to preempt is not clear. Nevertheless, recent circuit court decisions have held that FIFRA preempts state common law claims against pesticide manufacturers. This Comment concludes that courts continuing to hold FIFRA preemptive of state common law both misinterpret congressional intent and misapply Cipollone.

Direct Actions For Emotional Harm: Is Compromise Possible?, Julie A. Davies

Washington Law Review

While most courts and commentators acknowledge that emotional injury resulting from negligence may merit compensation, they share the conviction that some limits must be placed on such claims. They identify two basic policy rationales as the justifications for limiting claims for emotional harm: (1) the desire to ensure that a defendant's liability for negligence is not disproportionate to his or her fault, and (2) the desire to prevent litigation of trivial or fraudulent claims. This Article argues that the two rules most frequently applied by courts to effectuate limitations on recovery—the "zone-of-danger" rule and the "foreseeability-plus-serious-injury" rule—suffer from serious deficiencies. …

"Keep The Change!": A Critique Of The No Actual Injury Defense To Liquidated Damages—Lind Building Corp. V. Pacific Bellevue Developments, 55 Wash. App. 70, 776 P.2d 977 (Div. 1), Review Denied, 113 Wash. 2d 1021, 781 P.2d 1322 (1989), James Arthur Weisfield

Washington Law Review

Most courts judge the enforceability of liquidated damages clauses as of the time of contract formation. In Lind Building Corp. v. Pacific Bellevue Development, the court created a "no actual injury" defense to enforcement of liquidated damages clauses by assessing validity as of the time of trial. This Note concludes that a "no actual injury" defense to liquidated damages recovery negates the benefits of agreed remedies, fails to provide a principled policy for enforcement, and produces inequitable results.

The Varieties Of Numerical Remedies, Eric Schnapper

Articles

This article seeks to provide a coherent account of why the federal courts have used numerical remedies and an analysis of the types of cases in which they should do so.

Part I describes the evolution of court ordered numerical remedies in Title VII and other employment cases and discusses the appellate courts' failure to establish any clear standards for adopting and framing such remedies. Part II argues that this lack of a coherent set of standards is due to a failure to recognize that the lower courts have been utilizing numerical remedies in six quite distinct types of cases, …

The Waiver Of Immunity In The Equal Access To Justice Act: Clarifying Opaque Language, Arlene S. Ragozin

Washington Law Review

This Comment first summarizes the relevant statutes and key judicial opinions in the section 2412(b) controversy. It then analyzes the disputed text, the impact of alternative textual interpretations on the EAJA as a whole, congressional intent as revealed by the Act's legislative history, and the potential limitations created by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. This Comment argues that the text of the Act creates a presumption that section 2412(b) imposes liability for attorneys' fees on the United States when the government commits an act which would impose such liability on another party. None of the other factors analyzed rebut the …

Confronting The Fictions Of The Eleventh Amendment: Pennhurst State School And Hospital V. Halderman, 104 S. Ct. 900 (1984), Camille Gearhart

Washington Law Review

This Note encourages lower federal courts to abandon the fictions of Ex Parte Young completely. The Note begins by exploring the history of the fictions of eleventh amendment doctrine. The Note then examines the Pennhurst Court's step forward in scorning these fictions and acknowledging that suits against state officers implicate state sovereignty. The Note next discusses the dilemma created by the Court's ruling that the eleventh amendment constitutionally prohibits federal judicial infringement of state sovereignty while at the same time acknowledging that the doctrine of Ex Parte Young allows such judicial infringement. Finally, the Note proposes that federal courts rely …

Limited Relief For Federal Employees Hypersensitive To Tobacco Smoke: Federal Employers Who'd Rather Fight May Have To Switch, Carolyn Cliff

Washington Law Review

Despite legislative and judicial efforts to control tobacco smoking in public places, smoking in the workplace continues to cause problems. This Comment analyzes two recent decisions that addressed claims for relief by federal government employees who suffer severe reactions to tobacco smoke: Parodi v. Merit Systems Protection Board, and Vickers v. Veterans Administration. The claims were brought under statutory schemes designed to meet the employment needs of the physically or mentally disadvantaged. The relief granted or considered in each decision gave the hypersensitive nonsmoker only a partial victory. In addition, the Vickers and Parodi decisions offer no assistance to nonsmokers …

Perpetuation Of Past Discrimination, Eric Schnapper

Articles

Part I of this Article offers several justifications for providing remedies for present harms that are caused by past acts of discrimination. Part II describes the different ways in which past discrimination can cause a present injury, and suggests for each way the appropriate legal standard for deciding when there is a present constitutional violation. Part III discusses the problems likely to arise in administering the suggested standards, and concludes that these problems are not inherently different from those involved in ordinary discrimination cases.

Products Liability—Washington Refuses To Allow Comparative Negligence To Reduce The Strict Liability Award—Seay V. Chrysler Corp., 93 Wn. 2d 319, 609 P.2d 1382 (1980), Shannon J. Skinner

Washington Law Review

This note will begin by examining the legal theories involved in merging the concepts of comparative negligence and strict products liability. The social policies that are behind the merger will then be discussed. The note concludes with a review of the proposal now before the Washington legislature which would effect the merger and change the result in Seay.

Products Liability—Washington Refuses To Allow Comparative Negligence To Reduce The Strict Liability Award—Seay V. Chrysler Corp., 93 Wn. 2d 319, 609 P.2d 1382 (1980), Shannon J. Skinner

Washington Law Review

This note will begin by examining the legal theories involved in merging the concepts of comparative negligence and strict products liability. The social policies that are behind the merger will then be discussed. The note concludes with a review of the proposal now before the Washington legislature which would effect the merger and change the result in Seay.

State Board Against Discrimination: Order To Hire As An Authorized Remedy, Anon

Washington Law Review

The Washington State Board Against Discrimination processed a complaint filed by Mrs. Geraldine Arnett charging defendant hospital with refusing to accept her application for employment as tray girl because of her Negro race. Investigation by the board substantiated Mrs. Arnett's charge of racial discrimination, but informal negotiation between the board and defendant failed to yield a satisfactory solution. The board then held a formal hearing, found defendant in violation of the Law Against Discrimination, and ordered it to accept Mrs. Arnett's application and offer her employment in the first vacant position for tray girl, providing she met the standard qualification …

Information In The Nature Of Quo Warranto In The State Of Washington, Monford Arthur Orloff

Washington Law Review

The statutory information in the nature of quo warranto is a remedy granted by the appropriate provisions of the Washington Constitution and statutes. Except for very minor changes, the statutory provisions have remained unaltered since first enacted as laws of the Territory in 1854. The decisions dealing with sections of the earlier laws are therefore, still of full effect except in so far as they have been distinguished or qualified by later decisions involving the same issues. The modem statutory information is an outgrowth of the old common law writ of quo warranto. The common law writ, as distinguished from …