Litigation Commons^™

Crumbling Patchwork: Massachusetts's Efforts To Fill The Gaps Left By Crawford Are Now Redundant, Christopher J. Fiorentino

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Thinking Outside Of The Box: Why Prisons Are Only Part Of The Solution, John C. Rapone

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law - Terry Searches Predicated On Nothing More Than Reasonable Suspicion That A Suspect Is Armed And Dangerous - United States V. House, 463 F. App'x 783 (10th Cir. 2012), David Cashman

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Family Law - Expanding Trail Courts' Authority To Create Contracts During The Equitable Division Of Property In A Divorce Action - Cesar V. Sundelin, 967 N.E.2d 171 (Mass. App. Ct. 2012), Lindsay Potter

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Evidence - Present Sense And Common Sense: Stretching The 803(1) Hearsay Exception To Its Limits - United States V. Hieng, 679 F.3d 1131 (9th Cir. 2012), Christopher Lynett

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Embryonic Stage: Younger V. Harris And Proceedings Of Substance On The Merits In The Context Of Preliminary Injunctive Relief, Jarrod L. Schaeffer

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Defining Patent Eligibility By Extrapolating The Judicial Outlook Of Software Onto Biotechnology Patents, Joanna M. Grigas

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Papadopoulos V. Target: Finally Melting Away The Century-Old Natural Accumulation Standard In Massachusetts, Kayla M. Savasta

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

The Doctrine Of Harmless Error In Criminal Cases In Massachusetts, Amanda M. Chaves

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Administrative Law - United States Entitled To Sovereign Immunity Under The Foreign Intelligence, Sammy Nabulsi Suhail

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law - Duress: No Defense To Murder: - Commonwealth V. Vasquez, 971 N.E.2d 783 (Mass. 2012), George K. Bullen

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Civil Rule 54(B): Seventy-Five And Ready For Retirement, Andrew S. Pollis

Faculty Publications

As we commemorate the diamond anniversary of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, this Article takes a critical look at one of the failed Rules: Rule 54(b). Although many commentators have noted difficulties with Rule 54(b), this is the first effort to describe those difficulties comprehensively, analyze their root causes, and offer a workable alternative.

When an order resolves a discrete claim in a multi-claim action, Rule 54(b) permits a district court to sever the order for immediate appeal by “expressly determine[in] that there is no just reason for delay.” The rule was designed to ease the hardship on litigants …

Franchise Goodwill: Take A Sad Song And Make It Better, Robert W. Emerson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The end of a franchisor-franchisee relationship is often like a divorce, with the parties engaged in a heated battle over the ownership of the franchise goodwill. In this debate, the same franchisors or franchisees often change their positions on goodwill ownership depending on current needs. This Article analyzes cases in many areas of franchise law to determine why franchisors and franchisees engage in such inconsistent reasoning, what the consequences are for franchising, and if there are ways to produce a more logical and efficient form of analysis and debate. In addressing the most contentious issues of franchising, adherence by litigants …

The Mosaic Theory In Individual Rights Litigation: On The Genealogy And Expansion Of A Concept, Robert M. Pallitto

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This article explores the use of the concept of "mosaics" in individual rights litigation, a topic that has received virtually no scholarly attention. Originally a construct used in analysis of intelligence data, the mosaic theory has been transposed to the litigation context and applied in a range of recent case law. Here, the article examines the theory's use in two settings that have important implications for individual liberties: to support the state secrets privilege as a form of information control, and to defeat habeas petitions filed by "war on terror" detainees. In these areas, the mosaic concept is used in …

Ohio Oil And Gas Litigation In The New Fracking Era, Blake Watson

School of Law Faculty Publications

There is a new era of oil and gas exploration in Ohio: the horizontal “fracking” era. Although the hydraulic fracturing process has been utilized for decades, the recent development of horizontal drilling methods has enabled companies to extract oil and gas from the Marcellus and Utica deep shale formations. Horizontal hydraulic fracturing has substantially changed oil and gas drilling in eastern Ohio, as evident by the following statements taken from a complaint filed by landowners in Columbiana County:

From 2008 through 2010, few Columbiana County landowners understood the significance of the Utica shale play. ... [M]any landowners enter[ed] into oil …

Essay:1 From The “No Spittin’, No Cussin’ And No Summary Judgment”2 Days Of Employment Discrimination Litigation To The “Defendant’S Summary Judgment A Rmed Without Comment” Days: One Judge’S Four-Decade Perspective, Hon. Mark W. Bennett

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Jury (Or More Accurately The Judge) Is Still Out For Civil Rights And Employment Cases Post-Iqbal, Suzette M. Malveaux

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bringing Back Reasonable Inferences: A Short, Simple Suggestion For Addressing Some Problems At The Intersection Of Employment Discrimination And Summary Judgment, Hon. Bernice B. Donald, J. Eric Pardue

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sacrificial Lambs: Compensating First Subscribers To Fda-Approved Medications For Postmarketing Injuries Resulting From Unlabeled Adverse Events, Rodney K. Miller

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Living In Cafa's World, Jay Tidmarsh

Journal Articles

This Article, prepared for a conference on the Class Action Fairness Act, examines the effect of CAFA on our understanding about the benefits and drawbacks of class actions. The Article describes the vision of class actions that imbues CAFA, and demonstrates how many subsequent developments in the law of class actions — including the Supreme Court’s decisions in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, and Shady Grove Orthopedics v. Allstate Insurance — have advanced CAFA’s restrictive vision about the role of class actions in modern American litigation. The Article demonstrates that competing visions about the role of class actions …

Building A Taxonomy Of Litigation: Clusters Of Causes Of Action In Federal Complaints, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman, Zoran Obradovic, Kosta Ristovski

Scholarship@WashULaw

This project empirically explores civil litigation from its inception by examining the content of civil complaints. We utilize spectral cluster analysis on a newly compiled federal district court dataset of causes of action in complaints to illustrate the relationship of legal claims to one another, the broader composition of lawsuits in trial courts, and the breadth of pleading in individual complaints. Our results shed light not only on the networks of legal theories in civil litigation but also on how lawsuits are classified and the strategies that plaintiffs and their attorneys employ when commencing litigation. This approach permits us to …

Litigating Toward Settlement, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman

Scholarship@WashULaw

Civil litigation typically ends when the parties compromise. While existing theories of settlement primarily focus on information exchange, we instead examine how motion practice, especially non-discovery motions, can substantially shape parties’ knowledge about their cases and thereby influence the timing of settlement. Using docket-level federal district court data, we find a number of strong effects regarding how motions can influence this process, including that the filing of a motion significantly speeds case settlement, that granted motions are more immediately critical to settlement timing than motions denied, and that plaintiff victories have a stronger effect than defendant victories. These results provide …

Recent Developments In Third-Party Funding, Victoria Sahani

Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses recent developments in third-party funding that occurred during late 2012 and early 2013 in the three leading jurisdictions: Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The most important developments are the following. On 22 April 2013, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) issued regulatory guidelines clarifying the status of funders with respect to ASIC’s regulations and detailing how funders should manage conflicts of interest and handle certain provisions of their funding arrangements. In the United Kingdom, the Jackson Reforms took effect on 1 April 2013, bringing sweeping changes to the allowable fee agreements, discovery rules …

The Patent Litigation Explosion, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 1980s and 1990s. Litigation is more likely when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents, when firms are larger and technologically close and when prospective defendants spend more on research and development ("R&D"). The latter suggests inadvertent infringement may be more important than piracy. Public firms face dramatically increased hazards of litigation as plaintiffs and even more rapidly increasing hazards as defendants, especially for small public firms. The increase cannot be explained by patenting rates, R&D, firm value or industry composition. Legal changes are the most likely …

Certain Patents, Alan C. Marco, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents the first in a series of studies of stock market reactions to the legal outcomes of patent cases. From a sample of patents litigated during a 20-year period, we estimate market reactions to patent litigation decisions and to patent grants. These estimates reveal that the resolution of legal uncertainty over patent validity and patent infringement is, on average, worth as much to a firm as is the initial grant of the patent right. Each is worth about 1.0-1.5% excess returns on investment. There are significant differences between such market reactions before and after the establishment in 1982 …

Cobell Settlement Finalized After Years Of Litigation: Victory At Last?, Brooke Campbell

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Does Criminal Diversion Contribute To The Vanishing Civil Trial?, John B. Meixner Jr., Shari Seidman Diamond

Scholarly Works

Through his seminal work on the vanishing trial, Professor Marc Galanter has had a profound impact on public and scholarly discourse about the role of the trial in litigation, documenting the sharp reductions in the rate of civil cases since the mid-twentieth century. While there is little remaining doubt that the American civil trial is an increasingly scarce commodity, there is still much debate as to what has caused the decline.

In this Article, we seek to explore the extent to which the federal criminal docket may be contributing to the rapid disappearance of the civil trial by taking priority …

Logic, Not Evidence, Supports A Change In Expert Testimony Standards: Why Evidentiary Standards Promulgated By The Supreme Court For Scientific Expert Testimony Are Inappropriate And Inefficient When Applied In Patent Infringement Suits, Claire R. Rollor

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Drafting Arbitration Agreements: A Practioner's Guide For Consumer Credit Contracts, Nicole F. Munro, Peter L. Cockrell

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

The Extraordinary Deterrence Of Private Antitrust Enforcement: A Reply To Werden, Robert H. Lande, Joshua P. Davis

All Faculty Scholarship

Our article, "Comparative Deterrence from Private Enforcement and Criminal Enforcement of the U.S. Antitrust Laws," 2011 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 315, documented an extraordinary but usually overlooked fact: private antitrust enforcement deters a significant amount of anticompetitive conduct. Indeed, the article showed that private enforcement "probably" deters even more anticompetitive conduct than the almost universally admired anti-cartel enforcement program of the United States Department of Justice.

In a recent issue of Antitrust Bulletin, Gregory J. Werden, Scott D. Hammond, and Belinda A. Barnett challenged our analysis. They asserted that our comparison “is more misleading than informative.” It is unsurprising that they …