Torts Commons^™

Empowering The Active Jury: A Genuine Tort Reform, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The rallying cry of "tort reform" is frequently associated with changes to the civil justice system that restrict the civil jury or avoid it altogether. Tort reformers have praised United States Supreme Court rulings that have led to greater judicial control over the evidence, especially scientific evidence, which juries hear. Other reformers advocate bifurcation of trials to avoid the possibility of jurors being so negatively influenced by testimony about damages that it affects their liability judgments.

The tort system aims to compensate fairly and equitably those who are injured by others, and to do so in an efficient manner. Concerns …

The Logic Of Legal Remedies And The Relative Weight Of Norms: Assessing The Public Interest In The Tort Reform Debate, Irma S. Russell

Faculty Works

This article explores the background principles of consistency and proportionality in legal rules and remedies. It identifies the relative strength of the interests of individuals and the public as the key to justifying the remedies available in different areas of law. Understanding the normative guidance of particular legal rules reveals the strength of society's judgment of the interests at stake in different remedies. For example, the principle of consistency generally means that a legal doctrine applying an objective measure of one's interest must apply a like-kind measure to all interests considered, absent some explicit and justifiable basis for different formulations. …

Reforming Federal Personal Injury Litigation By Incorporation Of The Procedural Innovations Of Scotland And Ireland: An Analysis And Proposal, Daniel H. Erskine

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

Federal procedure has embraced the referral of civil cases outside the court system to alternative dispute resolution. This article argues that by utilizing courts to settle cases through civil procedure, courts realize their central role in ensuring the quality of settlements produced through the judicial administration of justice. The purpose of this article is to provide litigants with an optional procedure to expeditiously resolve federal personal injury cases. The system proposed in this article incorporates Scottish and Irish civil procedural reforms into a coherent method for judicial officers to declare the settlement value of a personal injury action without referring …

Continuing Violations Doctrine, Kyle Graham

Faculty Publications

It has been intimated that the uncertainty surrounding the continuing violations doctrine owes to a failure to grasp its origins and modem-day contours. This article treats this assertion as true, and tries to dispel at least some of this confusion. Toward this purpose, this article charts the conceptual landscape of this theory and explains how and why the doctrine has been and should be applied.

This analysis begins with the recognition of and distinction between two types of continuing violations. Though frequently confused or conflated, these two approaches are in fact quite different in both purpose and effect. The first …

Anti-Federalist Procedure, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

"[T]he new federal government will ... be disinclined to invade the rights of the individual States, or the prerogatives of their governments."

"[T]he Constitution of the United States ... recognizes and preserves the autonomy and independence of the States-independence in their legislative and independence in their judicial departments. . . . Any interference with either, except as [constitutionally] permitted, is an invasion of the authority of the State and, to that extent, a denial of its independence."

The understanding expressed by these opening quotes-that the national government was designed to be one of limited powers that would refrain from encroaching …

Reassessing Charitable Immunity In Virginia, Carl Tobias

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Swift, Silent Sword Hiding In The (Defense) Attorney's Arsenal: The Inefficacy Of Georgia's New Offer Of Judgment Statute As Procedural Tort Reform, Merritt E. Mcalister

Georgia Law Review

Offer of judgment provisions, initially creatures of state law but codified in 1938 as Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, are neither widely used nor widely understood. Both federal and state offer of judgment rules operate to penalize a plaintiff who fails to accept, in light of the ultimate judgment, a reasonable settlement offer. Scholars have often criticized the federal rule's minimal impact as a tool to encourage settlement, and several states, including Georgia in a recent enactment, have made efforts to create offer of judgment provisions that provide severe penalties-attorney's fees and costs-for an offeree who …

Improving The Construction And Litigation Resolution Process: The 2005 Amendments To The Washington Condominium Act Are A Win-Win For Homeowners And Developers, Mark F. O'Donnell, David E. Chawes

Seattle University Law Review

On August 1, 2005, significant amendments to the Washington Condominium Act (WCA) became effective. These amendments were intended to substantially reduce water infiltration in multiunit residential buildings and to simplify the condominium construction dispute resolution process. The heart of the amendments is the implementation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, as well as fee-shiftingprovisions which require the non-prevailing party to pay the attorney fees and costs of the prevailing party. A decade of lawsuits brought under the WCA by condominium owners associations against builders and developers, and in turn by builders against subcontractors, alleging defects in the ability of the …

Regarding Pained Sympathy And Sympathy Pains: Morality, And Empathy In The Civil Adjudication Of Pain, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Essay considers the legal propriety of the empathic responses of jurors to suffering plaintiffs. To that end, Part II first explicates the legal contours of a tension between what is experiential or physical (objective) and what is expressionistic or non-physical (subjective). This tension is a foundational jurisprudential concern in personal injury litigation because the subjective is seen to threaten the rule of law: the perceived primacy of reason and logic. Thus, this tension is also what the parties' attorneys seek to exploit and what the court seeks to constrain. Part III explores why an empathic identification is indeed a …

Recognizing Odysseus' Scar: Reconceptualizing Pain And Its Empathic Role In Civil Adjudication, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article proffers a consideration of how the expression of pain impacts the interpersonal dimensions of personal injury proceedings, contesting through philosophical logic and textual analyses of case law and legal practitioners' texts the conclusion of scholars such as Elaine Scarry and Robert Cover that pain unmakes both the word and the world. Seeing pain as something that can and must be communicated, albeit in a different form than pain embodied, makes pain a much more profound force, comports with our understanding of pain as a physical yet interpersonally meaningful sensation, and has many evidentiary ramifications. Taking as its premise …

Uncertainty And Informed Choice: Unmasking Daubert, Margaret A. Berger, Aaron D. Twerski

Michigan Law Review

This Article will first examine why it is that plaintiffs have been unable to prove causation under the Daubert guidelines in toxic tort litigation. Second, it will look at the two existing models for informed choice litigation medical malpractice and products liability-and demonstrate why neither of these models gives toxic tort plaintiffs a fair opportunity to recover for the deprivation of patient autonomy against drug manufacturers who have breached their duty to warn of known or knowable risks. Finally, this Article will explore the elements of a causation-free informed choice cause of action. It will suggest the appropriate standard for …

Like Migratory Birds- Latin American Claimants In U.S. Courts And The Ford-Firestone Rollover Litigation, Manuel A. Gómez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Revision Del Codigo Civil Y La Responsabilidad Civil Extracontractual (Parte Ii); Una Propuesta Alternativa Al Borrador De La Comision De Revision, 74 Rev. Jur. U.P.R. 1 (2005), Alberto Bernabe

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Theory Of Punitive Damages, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Faculty Scholarship

A contemporary theory of punitive damages must answer two questions: (1) what place, if any, do punitive damages have in the civil law of tort, given that they appear to involve an idea of criminal punishment? (2) why are punitive damages subject to special constitutional scrutiny, as in the Supreme Court's decision in BMW v. Gore, if they really are part of the civil law of tort? The article offers a theory that can answer both of these questions. Punitive damages have a double aspect, corresponding to two senses of "punitive." Insofar as they pertain to the state's goal of …

Terminating Calder: "Effects" Based Jurisdiction In The Ninth Circuit After Schwarzenegger V. Fred Martin Motor Co., A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

In Calder v. Jones, the Supreme Court clearly and succinctly determined that personal jurisdiction is appropriate over a defendant whose only contact with the forum state is its intentional actions aimed at and having harmful "effects" in the forum state. Illustrating the extent to which the law of personal jurisdiction had been relaxed from the time of Pennoyer v. Neff and International Shoe Co. v. Washington, Calder also extended the reach of state courts by permitting jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants on the strength of the plaintiffs' connections with the forum state. Although Calder provided a welcome and much …

Between 'Merit Inquiry' And 'Rigorous Analysis': Using Daubert To Navigate The Gray Areas Of Federal Class Action Certification, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

In recent years, the class action certification hearing has become the latest forum for disputes over the reliability of expert testimony. Since these hearings may involve complex technical matters, litigants frequently try to introduce expert testimony to either establish or challenge the basic requirements for class certification. Yet, most courts do not conduct a Daubert analysis before admitting expert testimony during certification, evaluate the evidence according to a uniform standard, or adequately weigh opposing expert opinions.

Even though the Federal Rules of Evidence codify procedures to ensure the reliability of expert testimony, courts have been reluctant to employ them during …

The Boundary Of Personal Jurisdiction: The "Effects Test" And The Protection Of Crazy Horse's Name, 38 J. Marshall L. Rev. 381 (2004), Scott Fruehwald

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

La Revision Del Codigo Civil Y La Responsabilidad Civil Extracontractual: Contradiccion En Los Terminos, 73 Rev. Jur. U.P.R. 981 (2004), Alberto Bernabe

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contracting With Tortfeasors: Mandatory Arbitration Clauses And Personal Injury Claims, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

People thinking about contractual arbitration clauses usually envision the resulting disputes as contractual in nature. However, there is also a group of cases in which the clauses are used to compel arbitration of personal injury claims. This article examines those cases, including the impact of the Federal Arbitration Act on their enforcement. Next, the article considers the ways in which these pre-dispute, mandatory arbitration clauses can disturb the traditional values of procedural justice, contractual fairness, and the enforcement of tort-based duties. Finally, the article proposes changes in the law of arbitration and evaluates whether such changes are politically feasible.

Recent Developments In Oklahoma Class Action Law, Jim T. Priest, Michael R. Pacewicz

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure: Medical Malpractice Gets Eerie: The Erie Implications Of A Heightened Pleading Burden In Oklahoma, Dace A. Caldwell

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Advisory Juries And Their Use And Misuse In Federal Tort Claims Act Cases, Matthew L. Zabel

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Recourse, Not Corrective Justice, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Whiplash: Who's To Blame?, Valerie P. Hans, Juliet Dee

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Tom is sitting in his car at an intersection, waiting for the red light to change. Without warning, the car behind him, driven by a distracted mother named Elaine, slams into the rear of Tom's car. After the accident, Tom experiences severe neck pain, which interferes with his work and family life. Who's to blame?

If Tom suffered physical injury as a result, then under current legal principles she is responsible for compensating him for his injury. However, research on jury decision making in civil cases suggests that a constellation of psychological, legal and political factors operate together to focus …

Lost Chance In Illinois? That May Still Be The Case, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 249 (2002), Lisa Petrilli

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Novel Approach To Mass Tort Class Actions: The Billion Dollar Settlement In The Sulzer Artificial Hip And Knee Litigation: A Symposium, Susan J. Becker, R. Eric Kennedy, Kathleen Mcdonald O'Malley The Honorable, Sidney A. Backstrom

Journal of Law and Health

This is a transcript of a two hour symposium which deals with the Sulzer knee and hip replacement class action. A copy of the settlement is included as an appendix. The settlement in the U.S. District Court for the N.D. Ohio was unique and creative approach to resolving a mass tort class action. In a novel move, Sulzer agreed to open its books to an independent review firm to determine how much the firm could pay without going bankrupt. The number was $1 billion. As negotiated by the parties and approved by the court, the final settlement provides compensation for …

Common Law Courts In An Age Of Equity Procedure: Redefining Appellate Review For The Mass Tort Era, Melissa A. Waters

Scholarship@WashULaw

From expansion of tort liability rules, to novel claims aggregation and settlement techniques, to statistically derived liability and damages assessments, mass tort litigation is producing unprecedented innovations at every level of the federal legal system. What is particularly striking about these innovations is that they are almost exclusively the product of a handful of federal trial judges who specialize in mass tort cases. Because appellate courts lack the necessary tools to supervise their decisions, these few mass tort trial judges are shaping the rules that govern the mass tort legal regime with little or no appellate supervision. The result is …

Lessons From Abroad: Complexity And Convergence, Linda S. Mullenix

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 2000 and 2001.

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance Law in the years 2000 and 2001.