Courts Commons^™

Law Of Federal Courts (2d Ed.), James L. Oakes

Maine Law Review

Professor Charles A. Wright's second edition of Law of Federal Courts, one of the West Hornbooks is not exactly light reading. It probably will not make the best-seller list, at least in competition with some of the current, racy fare that list affords. Indeed, it is not even the kind of law book that one picks up and reads from cover to cover, so to speak. At the same time, Law of Federal Courts is a thoroughly realistic, well composed work of legal art which will fill any reviewer's bill. With a broad brush stroke, Professor Wright, who was one …

Bernier V. State - The Right To Counsel In Entrustment Revocation Proceedings, Peter J. Detroy

Maine Law Review

Theodore Bernier was adjudicated a juvenile offender in September, 1966, and was subsequently committed to the Boys Training Center (BTC) for the term of his minority. In February, 1968, he was released on entrustment to his parents. Almost a year and a half later, Bernier was questioned by local police regarding his possible involvement in the theft of greenstamps from a local store. Although he was released without the police taking further action, they notified an aftercare and placement worker assigned to the BTC of the questioning. As a result, the BTC revoked the entrustment, and the police took him …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …

De Novo Juries, Misdemeanor Counsel, And Other Problems: Changes Ahead For The Maine District Courts?, Pierce B. Hasler

Maine Law Review

The Maine judicial system has two levels of criminal courts, the superior court having exclusive trial jurisdiction over felony prosecutions and the district court operating with concurrent trial jurisdiction for misdemeanors. The district court also processes the preliminary phases of felony cases; included in this function are bail hearings, initial appearances (arraignments), and preliminary hearings. To provide jury trials in misdemeanor prosecutions state law permits all district court convictions to be appealed to the superior court for trial de novo to a jury. The accepted reason for unlimited de novo trials is that the state constitution requires a jury in …

Law Of Federal Courts (2d Ed.), James L. Oakes

Maine Law Review

Professor Charles A. Wright's second edition of Law of Federal Courts, one of the West Hornbooks is not exactly light reading. It probably will not make the best-seller list, at least in competition with some of the current, racy fare that list affords. Indeed, it is not even the kind of law book that one picks up and reads from cover to cover, so to speak. At the same time, Law of Federal Courts is a thoroughly realistic, well composed work of legal art which will fill any reviewer's bill. With a broad brush stroke, Professor Wright, who was one …

Extending The Smith V. Hooey Duty To The Holding Jurisdiction, Ronald D. Russell

Maine Law Review

The right to a speedy trial has been an integral part of the Anglo-American legal system since its foundation. The first statement of this guarantee seems to be in the codification of basic rights included in the Magna Charta. It was incorporated into the earliest laws of colonial America and later expressed in the sixth amendment to the Constitution. In Klopfer v. North Carolina, the United States Supreme Court stated, "The history of the right to a speedy trial and its reception in this country clearly establish that it is one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution." …

Bernier V. State - The Right To Counsel In Entrustment Revocation Proceedings, Peter J. Detroy

Maine Law Review

Theodore Bernier was adjudicated a juvenile offender in September, 1966, and was subsequently committed to the Boys Training Center (BTC) for the term of his minority. In February, 1968, he was released on entrustment to his parents. Almost a year and a half later, Bernier was questioned by local police regarding his possible involvement in the theft of greenstamps from a local store. Although he was released without the police taking further action, they notified an aftercare and placement worker assigned to the BTC of the questioning. As a result, the BTC revoked the entrustment, and the police took him …

De Novo Juries, Misdemeanor Counsel, And Other Problems: Changes Ahead For The Maine District Courts?, Pierce B. Hasler

Maine Law Review

The Maine judicial system has two levels of criminal courts, the superior court having exclusive trial jurisdiction over felony prosecutions and the district court operating with concurrent trial jurisdiction for misdemeanors. The district court also processes the preliminary phases of felony cases; included in this function are bail hearings, initial appearances (arraignments), and preliminary hearings. To provide jury trials in misdemeanor prosecutions state law permits all district court convictions to be appealed to the superior court for trial de novo to a jury. The accepted reason for unlimited de novo trials is that the state constitution requires a jury in …

Maine's Judicial Machinery At The Crossroads, Armand A. Dufresne Jr.

Maine Law Review

There is really no such thing as "a court"; in modem society, at least, there is only something which may be called a court system. Even that designation, however, may be a misnomer; a court system is really no more than a group of people, judges, clerks, lawyers, bailiffs, and so forth, tied together by certain functional arrangements. Even the finest institutional organization for a court system will produce delay and injustice if it is not staffed by competent people. Conversely, the most competent and dedicated people cannot produce satisfactory results from an institutional arrangement which does not permit them …

Preliminary Questions Of Fact: Respective Roles Of Judge And Jury In Maine Courts, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Virtually indisputable in the law is the notion that the trial judge determines questions of admissibility of evidence. However, when admissibility depends upon the evaluation of a preliminary question of fact, both courts and commentators disagree as to whether the judge should continue to occupy the role of sole decision-maker. The intertwining of fact, the preliminary condition, and law, the admissibility decision, raises some havoc with accepted views of the judge as arbiter of the law and the jury as fact finder. If the judge determines both questions, he is resolving not only legal, but also factual issues traditionally within …

The Role Of The Maine Law Court In Abrogating The Common Law Doctrines Of Governmental And Charitable Immunity From Tort Liability, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

During the last decade the Maine Law Court refused to overrule two common law doctrines which effectively insulated certain tortfeasors from liability for their negligent conduct. The purpose of this comment is to determine if the public policy issues embodied in the immunity rules and the reliance interests attributed to those rules by the Law Court justified the radical departure from the court's traditional role of deciding cases properly before it.

Cross-Appeals In Maine: Pitfalls For The Winning Litigant, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

The question of when a winning party must cross-appeal to challenge non-determinative findings in defense of a favorable judgment was answered for the first time in Maine in the recent case of Littlefield v. Littlefield. Noting a split of authority between the federal and state courts, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unpredictably determined that an appellee must file a cross-appeal if he seeks to attack adverse findings which, if decided differently, would adequately support the judgment. In Littlefield, the court's objective was to provide notice to opposing parties. Recognizing that this end is a legitimate concern, the question here is …

The Role Of The Maine Law Court In Abrogating The Common Law Doctrines Of Governmental And Charitable Immunity From Tort Liability, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

During the last decade the Maine Law Court refused to overrule two common law doctrines which effectively insulated certain tortfeasors from liability for their negligent conduct. The purpose of this comment is to determine if the public policy issues embodied in the immunity rules and the reliance interests attributed to those rules by the Law Court justified the radical departure from the court's traditional role of deciding cases properly before it.

Washington State Bar Licensure Task Force Subcommittee On Ethics/Character Fitness Report And Recommendations, Brent Williams-Ruth

Seattle University Law Review Online

The Washington State Bar Licensure Task Force’s Subcommittee on Ethics/Character and Fitness (the Subcommittee) was created at the behest of Brent Williams-Ruth, the representative selected by the President of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA or the Bar) to represent the Board of Governors on the Bar Licensure Task Force. His interest in modifying the Character and Fitness process took root after meeting Tarra Simmons during her experience with the Character and Fitness Board. After the WSBA Character and Fitness Board recommended that Simmons’s application to sit for the bar exam be denied, the Washington Supreme Court reversed that recommendation …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …