Litigation Commons^™

Cultural Literacy And The Adversary System: The Enduring Problems Of Distrust, Misunderstanding And Narrow Perspective, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The meandering road to discovery reform illustrates, among other things, the ineffectiveness of an atomized profession that lacks either sufficient understanding of the adversary system or the resources and forcefulness to address the practical impact of adversarialism. In some ways, lawyers reforming litigation can be characterized as poorer investigators than the sixsome who examined the elephant. The elephant sleuths were guilty of isolation and ignorance. Lawyers and policy makers not only exhibit a lack of information and empathy, but also often show an unwarranted distrust of or contempt for the elements of the profession with which they disagree. Unfortunately, however, …

New Paradigm, Normal Science, Or Crumbling Construct? Trends In Adjudicatory Procedure And Litigation Reform, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

One aspect of a possible new era is the increasing ad hoc activity of various interest groups, including the bench and the organized bar, primarily pursued through official organizations such as the Judicial Conference, the Federal Judicial Center, the American Bar Association (“ABA”), and the American Law Institute. Traditionally, of course, judges and lawyers have lobbied Congress and state legislatures for litigation change, as demonstrated by the saga of the Rules Enabling Act (“Enabling Act” or “Act”). But, the legal profession's more recent “political” activity regarding litigation reform differs from the traditional model in several ways. First, the participation of …

Civil Practice, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the 1992 Survey year, “new” legislation was enacted which fundamentally changes the procedure for commencement of some lawsuits. Effective December 31, 1992, all civil actions in supreme and county courts must be commenced by filing a summons and complaint or summons with notice. Several important amendments to the Civil Practice Law and Rules (“CPLR”) were enacted and effective January 1, 1993, new IAS and escrow check bouncing rules became effective. Additionally, there have been significant developments in the decisional law of statute of limitations, discovery, sanctions, and the legal profession. These and other areas should be of interest to …

The Importance Of A Contextual Approach To Libel Law: The Impact Of Immuno Ag. V. Moor-Jankowski And Milkovich V. Lorain Journal Co., Margaret Chan

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fifty Years Of Bernhard V. Bank Of America Is Enough: Collateral Estoppel Should Require Mutuality But Res Judicata Should Not, Michael J. Waggoner

Publications

No abstract provided.

New Rule 50 May End Directed Verdicts For Plaintiffs, Michael J. Waggoner

Publications

No abstract provided.

Punitive Damages: A Primer For Utah, Crookston V. Fire Insurance Exchange, David F. Burrett

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Appellate Practice And Procedure, Kathryn L. Allen, William M. Droze

Mercer Law Review

This survey Article tracks the 1991 developments in appellate practice and procedure for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

• Jurisdiction
• Standard of Review
• Waiver of Right to Appellate Consideration and Harmless Error
• Miscellaneous Issues: Authority of the Court of Appeals

Trial Practice And Procedure, Benton J. Mathis Jr., Leigh C. Lawson

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys the 1991 decisions of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that made a significant impact upon the area of trial practice and procedure. One of the most important developments in this area of law occurred in the case Wright v. Preferred Research, Inc. In Wright the Eleventh Circuit examined closely Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58 and, in a case of first impression, held that when a district court amends a judgment, Rule 58 did not require that a separate document, setting out the terms of the remitted judgment, be entered before the time for the appeal …

Trial By Jury Or Judge: Transcending Empiricism, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Pity the civil jury, seen by some as the sickest organ of a sick system. Yet the jury has always been controversial. One might suppose that, with so much at stake for so long, we would all know a lot about the ways juries differ from judges in their behavior. In fact, we know remarkably little. This Article provides the first large-scale comparison of plaintiff win rates and recoveries in civil cases tried before juries and judges. In two of the most controversial areas of modern tort law--product liability and medical malpractice--the win rates substantially differ from other cases' win …

Florida's Equal Access To Justice Act: How The Courts And Doah Have Interpreted It, Mary W. Chaisson

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power And Legal Artifice: The Federal Class Action, Bryant Garth

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Using case studies and interviews with lawyers and representatives in class actions, this article explores the contribution that class actions make to their ostensible beneficiaries. The article first distinguishes the major types of class actions in terms of the roles of lawyers and class representatives, ranging from very passive representatives to individuals intensively involved with the dispute that gave rise to the litigation. The article next seeks to evaluate the class actions. On the basis of the results of the class actions, the article finds that class actions cannot be proclaimed major contributors to social change. The focus on results, …

Civil Forfeiture Of Property For Drug Offenders Under Illinois And Federal Statute: Zero Tolerance, Zero Exceptions, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 389 (1992), T. J. Hiles

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sanctions, Symmetry, And Safe Harbors: Limiting Misapplication Of Rule 11 By Harmonizing It With Pre-Verdict Dismissal Devices, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

With only a small risk of overstatement, one could say that sanctions in civil litigation exploded during the 1980s, with the 1983 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 acting as the principal catalyst. From 1938 until the 1983 amendment, only two dozen or so cases on Rule 11 were reported, with courts rarely imposing sanctions. Although a few cases were notable by virtue of sanction size, prestige of the firm sanctioned, or publicity attending the underlying case, the legal profession largely regarded Rule 11 as a dead letter. In addition, other sanctions provisions, such as Federal Rule of …

International Judicial Assistance, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

The general or even specialized practitioner faces serious difficulties as the world shrinks and the practice of law frequently transcends international boundaries. In the civil and commercial arena, issues of discovery and service of documents abroad, others relating to judicial assistance from foreign courts, available to American courts or individual litigants, and assistance available from American courts for foreign governments and individual litigants, can be mindboggling. In an age where transnational litigation (that is, domestic litigation that touches upon one or more foreign jurisdictions) is rapidly increasing, counsel could be guilty of malpractice if counsel takes action abroad that proves …

Civil Rights Conundrum, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

As a case study of the impediments imposed by the revised F.R.C.P. Rule 11 in civil rights litigation, Professor Tobias relates the story of the Robeson County, N.C. prosecution of Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, their subsequent civil rights action, and the ensuing Rule 11 sanctions imposed upon their counsel, as reported in In re Kunstler, 914 F.2d 505 (4th Cir. 1990).

Settling For A Judge: A Comment On Clermont And Eisenberg, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

Trial by Jury or Judge: Transcending Empiricism,1 by Kevin Clermont and Theodore Eisenberg, is not only an important article, it is unique. To most Americans, trial means trial by jury. In fact, over half of all federal trials are conducted without juries2 (including 31% of trials in cases in which the parties have the right to choose a jury3), and the proportion of bench trials in state courts is even higher.4 And yet, while there is a large literature on the outcomes of jury trials and the factors that affect them,5 nobody else has systematically compared trials by jury to …

Why Vosburg Comes First, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jurors' Judgments Of Business Liability In Tort Cases: Implications For The Litigation Explosion, Valerie P. Hans, William S. Lofquist

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Criticisms of the civil jury, including charges that the jury is biased against business, have been central to debates over the litigation explosion and demands for tort reform. This article seeks to inform these ongoing controversies by examining tort jurors' accounts of how they reached decisions in cases with business parties. Interviews and questionnaire data showed that jurors were skeptical of plaintiff tort cases against businesses, organized their accounts more on the actions and motivations of plaintiffs than on the responsibilities of business, and spoke often of the litigation crisis and the importance of limiting awards.

Civil Practice, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

During the Survey year seventeen articles of the CPLR were amended and three new articles were added. Also, effective December 1, 1991, Congress has approved important amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Civil Justice Expenses and Delay Reduction Plans were adopted by the Board of Judges of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Additionally, there have been significant developments in the decisional law of discovery, statute of limitations, sanctions, and res judicata. These and other areas should be of interest to the practitioner.

Environmental Litigation And Rule 11, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The 1983 amendment to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 has been the most controversial revision in the half-century history of the Federal Rules. Judges have applied amended Rule 11, which requires them to sanction lawyers and parties who do not conduct reasonable inquiries before filing papers, in over 1000 reported opinions, considerably more unreported determinations, and numerous informal contexts. The Rule has engendered much unnecessary satellite litigation and has been implemente4 inconsistently, while attorneys' fees remain the "sanction of choice" for violations. Rule 11 activity has especially disadvantaged civil rights plaintiffs and lawyers, whose lack of resources can make …

Appellate Practice And Procedure, Marion T. Pope Jr., Ann H. Kelley

Mercer Law Review

Practitioners in Georgia's state appellate courts recognize that the most important step in the appellate process is to first ascertain the proper procedure to insure that their appeal is properly before the court, Because the statutory and decisional law governing appellate practice and procedure is not immutable, the appellate practitioner must consistently strive to stay abreast of the law in this area. With these thoughts in mind, this Article will survey selected opinions of Georgia's state appellate courts pertaining to appellate practice and procedure rendered during the period from June 1, 1988 to May 31, 1991. The Article will also …

Trial Practice And Procedure, Molly Townes O'Brien

Mercer Law Review

If "[t]he history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards," then 1990 should be regarded as a fine year in the history of liberty. In this year's rulings, the Eleventh Circuit required the district courts to scrutinize in forma pauperis complaints carefully before dismissing them as frivolous and demanded that pro se parties receive express written notice that they must file affidavits in response to a motion for summary judgment. The Eleventh Circuit was also unusually receptive this year to claims by nonresident defendants that the court's exercise of personal jurisdiction over them would …

The Impact Of Alternative Negligence Defense Rules On Litigation Behavior And Tort Claim Disposition, Marianne M. Jennings

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

A Better Approach To Arbitrability, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Historically, Anglo-American courts refused to enforce arbitration agreements, jealously guarding their dispute resolution monopoly. During the early twentieth century, merchants and attorneys began seeking legislation requiring courts to defer to arbitration. The United States Abitration Act took effect January 1, 1926 and has remained essentially unchanged. It was written with the implicit assumption that it would be invoked by commercial actors having relatively equal bargaining power and emotive appeal to a jury. The Act says nothing to direct the court's inquiry concerning the quality of either party's assent to the arbitration clause other than requiring a written arbitration agreement and …

The Rehnquist Court, Statutory Interpretation, Inertial Burdens, And A Misleading Version Of Democracy, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

No one theory or school of thought consistently dominates judicial application of statutes, but the basic methodology employed by courts seems well-established if not always well-defined. Most mainstream judges and lawyers faced with a statutory construction task will look at (although with varying emphasis) the text of the statute, the legislative history of the provision, the context of the enactment, evident congressional purpose, and applicable agency interpretations, often employing the canons of construction for assistance. Although orthodox judicial thought suggests that the judge's role is confined to discerning textual meaning or directives of the enacting legislature, courts also often examine …

Rule 11 Recalibrated In Civil Rights Cases, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court promulgated the 1983 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure out of growing concern about abuse of the civil litigation process. The most controversial aspect of the implementation of these revisions has been judicial enforcement of amended Rule 11 (the Rule) in ways that disadvantage or "chill" civil rights plaintiffs and attorneys. As the federal judiciary enters its eighth year of implementing the Rule, courts apparently have improved their application of it by becoming more solicitous of the needs of civil rights plaintiffs and their counsel, in recognition of the important social function that …

Edmonson V. Leesville Concrete Co.: Will The Peremptory Challenge Survive Its Battle With The Equal Protection Clause, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 37 (1991), Steven M. Puiszis

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

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.