The Insurance Policy As Social Instrument And Social Institution,
2010
University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law
The Insurance Policy As Social Instrument And Social Institution, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
Insurance policies are classified as a species of contract. Although this characterization is correct, it is unduly narrow if used as the exclusive lens for assessing insurance policies, which are not merely contracts but also are designed to perform particular risk management, deterrence, and compensation functions important to economic and social ordering. Recognizing this has significant implications regarding the manner in which insurance policies are construed in coverage disputes and suggests that policy construction can be improved by not only performing traditional contract analysis of disputed policies but also by appreciating the particular function of the insurance policy in question …
The Disordered And Discredited Plaintiff: Psychiatric Evidence In Civil Litigation,
2010
University of Maine School of Law
The Disordered And Discredited Plaintiff: Psychiatric Evidence In Civil Litigation, Deirdre M. Smith
Cardozo Law Review
This Article examines civil defendants' use of evidence of a plaintiff's alleged current or prior psychiatric diagnosis or treatment by analyzing and critiquing the three primary rationales offered in support of the relevancy of such evidence: (1) to suggest an alternative cause of the plaintiff's alleged psychological injuries; (2) to impeach the plaintiff's credibility by asserting that a mental illness interferes with the plaintiff's ability to recount or to perceive events accurately; and (3) to reveal certain propensities that inform how the plaintiff likely acted with respect to the events at issue in the litigation. While attaching a label of …
