Litigation Commons^™

Toward A Liberal Application Of The "Close Of All The Evidence" Requirement Of Rule 50(B) Of The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure: Embracing Fairness Over Formalism, Rollin A. Ransom

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the language and purposes of rule 50 to determine if and when a relaxed application of its requirements is appropriate. Part I considers the terms and goal of the rule and concludes that its purpose is to put the party opposing the motion for judgment as a matter of law on notice of the movant's assertion that the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law, and to provide the opposing party an opportunity to "cure." Part II discusses courts' varying application of the requirement that a motion for judgment as a matter of law made at …

Pimping And Pornography As Sexual Harassment: Amicus Brief In Support Of Plaintiff-Respondent In Thoreson V. Penthouse Int'l Ltd., Dorchen A. Leidholdt

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Several issues were raised on appeal to the New York Court of Appeals. Thoreson AKA DiLorenzo was the Respondent on the issue of sexual harassment and the Appellant on the issue of the amount of damages awarded by the Supreme Court. This portion of the brief addresses only the issue of sexual harassment. Wendy C. Lecker (J.D. 1988, New York University School of Law), authored a section on the issue of compensatory damages.

Challenging Solicitation Statues As Unconstitutional: Appellate Brief In Support Of Defendant-Appellant In Ypsilanti V. Patterson, Lore A. Rogers

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Appellate Brief in Support of Defendant-Appellant in Ypsilanti v. Patterson

Section 1: Nuts And Bolts, David A. Santacroce

Other Publications

Workers facing plant closing and permanent or long-term layoffs now have a little more legal protection to give them some time to plan for retraining and to look for new jobs.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act provides for 60 days advance notice to certain workers affected by a plant closing or mass layoff. This law was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1988 after having been sought for many years by unions and other workers' rights advocates.

Vigorous action by the labor movement and strong public support led to passage of the WARN Act in spite of …

Revising Article 9 To Reduce Wasteful Litigation, James J. White

Articles

For reasons that are unclear to me, the committees reviewing the articles of the Uniform Commercial Code and drafting revisions are congenitally conservative. Perhaps these committees take their charge too seriously, namely, to revise, not to revolutionize. Perhaps their intimate knowledge of the subject matter exaggerates the importance of each section and consequently magnifies the apparent size of every change. In any case, my own experience with two such committees tells me that the members quickly become focused on revisions and amendments that any outsider would describe as modest. To the extent that the revision of any of the articles …

What's Standing After Lujan? Of Citizen Suits, "Injuries," And Article Iii, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

In this article, I have two principal goals. The first is to explain why Lujan's invalidation of a congressional grant of standing is a misinterpretation of the Constitution. It is now apparently the law that Article III forbids Congress from granting standing to "citizens" to bring suit. But this view, building on an unfortunate innovation in standing law by Justice William 0. Douglas, is surprisingly novel. It has no support in the text or history of Article III. It is essentially an invention of federal judges, and recent ones at that. Certainly it should not be accepted by judges …

Three Attorney Fee-Shifting Rules And Contingency Fees: Their Impact On Settlement Incentives, Bradley L. Smith

Michigan Law Review

This Note seeks to predict the direction and magnitude of the change in settlement frequency under the three fee-shifting rules: American, British, and the British rule as modified by the PCC. Part I analyzes the proposed rule using the theoretical model of litigation and settlement developed by Hause. Part II examines the impact of fee-shifting when the plaintiff's lawyer receives reimbursement via a contingency fee. Analysis of indemnification in a contingency fee context raises several policy issues which section II.A addresses. Section II.B discusses the terms and assumptions made in adjusting Hause's model to reflect the standard contingency fee arrangement, …

Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus The United States, Martin J. Lalonde

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States by Edward Lazarus

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 …

An Asymmetrical Approach To The Problem Of Peremptories?, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Batson v. Kentucky, and the extension of Batson to parties other than prosecutors, may be expected to put pressure on the institution of peremptory challenges. After a brief review of the history of peremptories, this article contends that peremptories for criminal defendants serve important values of our criminal justice system. It then argues that peremptories for prosecutors are not as important, and that it may no longer be worthwhile to maintain them in light of the administrative complexities inevitable in a system of peremptories consistent with Batson. The article concludes that the asymmetry of allowing …

Personal Jurisdiction Over Aliens In Patent Infringement Actions: A Uniform Approach Toward The Situs Of The Tort, David Wille

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines current approaches to the question of personal jurisdiction over alien patent infringers. Part I describes personal jurisdiction requirements in the context of patent infringement suits against aliens. The leading case addressing these requirements has been interpreted differently by several courts, thus resulting in conflicting outcomes. Part II explains the current controversy over the locus of the tort of patent infringement. The three different modes of reasoning currently used by courts to determine the locus of the tort would allow immunity from suit for the alien in at least two hypothetical cases. This Part concludes that in order …

Misuse Of The Antitrust Laws: The Competitor Plaintiff, Edward A. Snyder, Thomas E. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

In this article we ask (1) under what circumstances are competitor suits meritorious, and (2) do existing rules, such as those requiring proof of market power or other so-called filters and the requirement that plaintiffs suffer "antitrust injury," afford a reasonable prospect of eliminating anticompetitive misuses of the remedy by competitor plaintiffs? We evaluate a sample of seventy-four cases in which plaintiffs sued their rivals to learn how competitor plaintiffs use the private antitrust remedy. And because many of these cases allege anticompetitive exclusionary practices, we consider how recent theories of exclusionary practices may be used to support competitor claims. …

The World In Our Courts, Stephen B. Burbank

Michigan Law Review

A Review of International Civil Litigation in United States Courts: Commentary and Materials by Gary B. Born and David Westin

Expert Evidence, Samuel R. Gross

Articles

It seems that the use of expert witnesses in common law courts has always been troublesome. In his Treatise on the Law of Evidence, first published in 1848, Judge John Pitt Taylor describes several classes of witnesses whose testimony should be viewed with caution, including: enslaved people (which accounts for "the lamentable neglect of truth, which is evinced by most of the nations of India, by the subjects of the Czar, and by many of the peasantry in Ireland"); women (because they are more susceptible to "an innate vain love of the marvelous"); and "foreigners and others ... living out …

Getting To No: A Study Of Settlement Negotiations And The Selection Of Cases For Trial, Samuel R. Gross, Kent D. Syverud

Articles

A trial is a failure. Although we celebrate it as the centerpiece of our system of justice, we know that trial is not only an uncommon method of resolving disputes, but a disfavored one. With some notable exceptions, lawyers, judges, and commentators agree that pretrial settlement is almost always cheaper, faster, and better than trial. Much of our civil procedure is justified by the desire to promote settlement and avoid trial. More important, the nature of our civil process drives parties to settle so as to avoid the costs, delays, and uncertainties of trial, and, in many cases, to agree …

Judicial Discretion: Is One More Of A Good Thing Too Much?, David B. Sentelle

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Judicial Discretion by Aharon Barak

Invasion Of Privacy: The Cross Creek Trial Of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Laura J. Hines

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Invasion of Privacy: The Cross Creek Trial of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings by Patricia Nassif Acton