In Defense Of Civil Juries,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
In Defense Of Civil Juries, Peter W. Culley
Maine Law Review
Criticism of the civil jury system is nothing new. In fact, virtually since its inception the civil jury has been embroiled in controversy. Typically critics argue that: the jury cannot handle the complex or technical case; there is great expense and delay attendant to trial by jury; jury adjudication is of low quality; verdicts rendered by different juries in cases involving similar facts often appear inconsistent. Recently, Justice Donald Alexander of the Maine Superior Court stated that "[t]he civil jury system has outlived its usefulness." In support of his basic premise that the civil jury system is merely an historical …
Cyr V. Michaud: Correction Of Clerical Errors With Juror Affidavits,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
Cyr V. Michaud: Correction Of Clerical Errors With Juror Affidavits, William S. Kany
Maine Law Review
Cyr v. Michaud, a civil suit to recover for personal injuries, was tried before a jury and resulted in a verdict which included specific answers to five interrogatories. After a unanimous verdict for the plaintiff was entered and the jury was discharged, the defendant obtained affidavits from all of the jurors which indicated that the jury had made a mistake. The trial court rejected a motion to correct the error and the defendant appealed. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, ruled that juror affidavits are not admissible to correct errors in the recording of verdicts. The …
The Status Of Jury Trial Waivers In Maine's District Court,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
The Status Of Jury Trial Waivers In Maine's District Court, Robert M. Knight
Maine Law Review
The power of a defendant to waive jury trial in state and federal criminal prosecutions has long been recognized. At the same time, when the offense charged is serious, i.e., one which invokes a federal constitutional right to jury trial, the United States Supreme Court has required a careful examination of the validity of such a waiver. The waiver rule applicable in Maine's superior court fully appreciates this strict waiver standard. Exercising its rulemaking authority, however, Maine's Supreme Judicial Court adopted a rule (effective in 1982) for waiver of jury trial in the state's district court which seemingly obscured the …
Judge Edward T. Gignoux — A Personal Appreciation,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
Judge Edward T. Gignoux — A Personal Appreciation, Frank M. Coffin
Maine Law Review
Most occasions for encomia about judges occur when the subject has departed the scene of his accomplishments. Happily, the subject of this issue of the Maine Law Review is still with us and likely to be so for a long time. He also happens to measure up precisely to the overused word "paragon." I use it in the original Latin sense of "whetstone," something to sharpen against or to compare oneself with. My thesis is that Judge Gignoux gives observers of any age, but particularly the young, an inspiring role model. This volume is felicitously dedicated. The ever-present problem is …
Restraining The Prosecutor: Restrictions On Threatening Prosecution For Civil Ends,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
Restraining The Prosecutor: Restrictions On Threatening Prosecution For Civil Ends, James A. Trowbridge
Maine Law Review
Prosecutors in some cases agree to dismiss criminal charges, admit a defendant to a diversion program, or enter a nolle prosequi in exchange for the defendant signing a waiver of any civil claims against law enforcement agents, governments, or private persons. The practice of a prosecutor bargaining for the release of law enforcement personnel or others from civil liability raises serious questions concerning the independence of the prosecutorial function, the relationship of prosecutors to other legal institutions, and the application of rules of professional responsibility. Generally, courts have been critical of these arrangements. The Model Code of Professional Responsibility (Code) …
Prejudice And Promise In The Early Years Of The Federal Judiciary,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
Prejudice And Promise In The Early Years Of The Federal Judiciary, George L. Haskins
Maine Law Review
Preserving the dignity of the human individual and protecting individual rights from the excesses of governmental power have been endemic problems for politically organized society in the western world for centuries. From antiquity and the early middle ages comes the thought that "government" became necessary because of he sinfulness or depravity of man. But it was not suggested that rulers should be all-powerful nor that the people who are governed should be entirely at the mercy of government. Indeed, our classic ideal of the democratic state first emerged in Greece, then briefly again in Rome, and later — but for …
Tuttle V. Raymond: Drawing The Line On Punitive Damages,
2024
Univeristy of Maine School of Law
Tuttle V. Raymond: Drawing The Line On Punitive Damages, Elting H. Smith
Maine Law Review
In Tuttle v. Raymond, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, reconsidered the appropriateness of Maine's common law doctrine of punitive damages. Under the doctrine, punitive or exemplary awards are permitted in tort actions, at the factfinder's discretion, for the purpose of deterring wrongful conduct. Prior to Tuttle, a plaintiff raised a claim for such an award if he proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was guilty of intentional, wanton, malicious, reckless, or grossly negligent behavior. Because of the doctrine's uncertain justification and vague standards, however, punitive damages had become the subject of …
Beyond The Equity Power Of Bankruptcy Courts: Toxic Tort Liabilities In Chapter 11 Cases,
2024
Univeristy of Maine School of Law
Beyond The Equity Power Of Bankruptcy Courts: Toxic Tort Liabilities In Chapter 11 Cases, Kaighn Smith
Maine Law Review
In 1982, three asbestos product manufacturers filed voluntary petitions for business reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The common reason for each of these filings was that tort liabilities threatened the financial survival of the corporation. Never, in the history of United States bankruptcy law, had any business sought bankruptcy relief for such a reason. By 1985, two more firms, another asbestos product manufacturer and a pharmaceutical company, filed Chapter 11 petitions for the same reason. The torts of these "debtors" in bankruptcy are similar; they extend from the manufacture and wide-spread marketing of products that …
Affirmative Judicial Case Management: A Viable Solution To The Toxic Product Litigation Crisis,
2024
Univeristy of Maine School of Law
Affirmative Judicial Case Management: A Viable Solution To The Toxic Product Litigation Crisis, Patrick Francis Harrigan
Maine Law Review
With increasing frequency, federal courts throughout the nation have confronted a multiplicity of "toxic tort" claims, claims for relief arising from chronic and latent illnesses or diseases allegedly caused by toxic substances. Toxic substances are substances whose manufacture, processing, distribution, use, or disposal presents or will present an unreasonable risk of injury to a person's health or to the environment. Because many of these unreasonable health risks are caused by consumer and industrial products, many toxic tort claims are actually "toxic product" claims. Examples of toxic product claims include those arising from the use, exposure to, or consumption of chemicals …
Perreault V. Parker: Findings Tainted By Error,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
Perreault V. Parker: Findings Tainted By Error, Gisele M. Nadeau
Maine Law Review
An appellate court does not disturb a trial court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous, and, therefore, usually confines its review to an assessment of a trial court's legal conclusions based on those findings of fact. The method used by a trial court in making factual findings, however, involves the application of legal principles. If a trial court fails properly to apply these legal principles in arriving at its findings of fact, these findings may be tainted by the error. This is so, for instance, when a trial court's findings of fact have been "manifestly influenced or controlled" …
State V. Harding: Municipal Police Authority And The Fresh Pursuit Statute,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
State V. Harding: Municipal Police Authority And The Fresh Pursuit Statute, David S. Schuman
Maine Law Review
As early as 1551, during the reign of King Edward VI, courts held at common law that, except in cases of fresh pursuit, the power of a sheriff or justice of the peace does not extend beyond his jurisdiction. Recognizing the importance of jurisdictional boundaries as limits on a sheriff's authority, the Barons of the Exchequer denounced the possibility of "two several sheriffs in one same county," observing that "in this realm there are divers authorities, and none may exceed his limits or bounds." Modern state statutes setting forth the powers of local police continue to limit the extra-jurisdictional authority …
The Denial Of Bail Under Maine's "Proof Evident Or Presumption Great" Standard,
2024
University of Maine School of Law
The Denial Of Bail Under Maine's "Proof Evident Or Presumption Great" Standard, Maureen Dea
Maine Law Review
When the framers of the Maine Constitution gathered in Portland in the fall of 1819, they decided that the document, unlike the Massachusetts Constitution on which it was based, should guarantee a right to bail pending trial. The convention adopted, apparently without debate or dissent, the following provision as part of the Declaration of Rights in article I . . .
The Trouble With Classifications,
2024
University of Chicago Law School
The Trouble With Classifications, Aziz Z. Huq
Notre Dame Law Review
The Supreme Court relies increasingly on anticlassification rules to implement the Constitution’s various commands of evenhanded state treatment. These rules direct attention to whether an instance of a forbidden classification is present on the face of a challenged law. They contain two necessary steps. First, a court defines a general category of impermissible terms. Second, a court ascertains whether an instance of the category is found in enacted text—so triggering the familiar strict scrutiny analysis. So defined, anticlassification rules now dominate equal protection, free speech, “dormant” Commerce Clause, and even free exercise jurisprudence. The Roberts Court celebrates these doctrinal tests …
The Lost History Of Judicial Restraint,
2024
Catholic University Columbus School of Law
The Lost History Of Judicial Restraint, Derek A. Webb
Notre Dame Law Review
For over 125 years, jurists and scholars who have championed judicial restraint have looked back to James Bradley Thayer’s 1893 Harvard Law Review article, The Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law, as the seminal authority for the rule that courts should presume the constitutionality of a challenged law and only invalidate it if its unconstitutionality is “clear” and “beyond a reasonable doubt.” But Thayer presented those three rules (presumption of constitutionality, clear error rule, and reasonable doubt standard) as rooted in historical legal practice in America. And yet none of his twentieth or twenty-first century …
Batson Challenges In Federal, Kansas, And Missouri Courts,
2024
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
Batson Challenges In Federal, Kansas, And Missouri Courts, Matt Champagne
Law Student Works
In Batson v. Kentucky, 474 U.S. 79 (1986), the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) ruled generally that the use of peremptory strikes to disqualify potential jurors based solely on their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, the Court held that the use of peremptory strikes by the prosecution to exclude all four Black potential jurors from a jury pool, thus seating an all-white petit jury, on no other grounds besides the perspective jurors’ race violated a Black man’s right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court reasoned that the exclusion of …
Law And Equity On Appeal,
2024
William & Mary Law School
Law And Equity On Appeal, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl
Faculty Publications
Most lawyers know that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure merged the divergent trial procedures of the common law and of equity, but fewer are familiar with the development of federal appellate procedure. Here too there is a story of the merger of two distinct systems. At common law, a reviewing court examined the record for errors of law after the final trial judgment. In the equity tradition, an appeal was a rehearing of the law and the facts that aimed at achieving justice and did not need to await a final judgment. Unlike the story of federal trial procedure, …
Rwu Law Alumni Newsletter December 2024,
2024
Boston Globe
Rwu Law Alumni Newsletter December 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Pbn Connect, Edward Fitzpatrick, Danna Lorch
RWU Law
No abstract provided.
Understanding The Equality Of Parties In Arbitration: A Case Comment On International Seaport Dredging Private Limited V Kamarajar Port Limited,
2024
National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
Understanding The Equality Of Parties In Arbitration: A Case Comment On International Seaport Dredging Private Limited V Kamarajar Port Limited, Sahana Ramesh
National Law School Journal
While the Supreme Court of India has emphasised the equality of arbitrating parties in several decisions, the court often had to use various tools to assert this. It is a question of policy as to whether statutory undertakings—that perform public functions by entering commercial transactions—must be given preferential treatment in certain aspects of the dispute settlement process, including when they choose to challenge an arbitral award. This case comment considers the decision of the Supreme Court of India in International Seaport Dredging Private Limited v Kamarajar Port Limited to highlight the nuances involved in the court’s conclusion that all …
Not-So-Special Solicitude,
2024
Texas A&M University School of Law
Not-So-Special Solicitude, Katherine Mims Crocker
Faculty Scholarship
In a high-profile case last term about state standing to sue in federal court, Justice Gorsuch deemed it “hard not to wonder why” the majority said “nothing about ‘special solicitude.’” The silence was indeed surprising, for in a landmark decision several years earlier, the Supreme Court had declared that states were “entitled to special solicitude”—presumably meaning some sort of preferential treatment—“in [the] standing analysis.” And since then, commentators had depicted the concept as permitting opportunistic states to wage ideological crusades in courts across the country, especially through administrative-law attacks on federal-government defendants.
But what if “special solicitude” is not so …
Foreword,
2024
University of Richmond - School of Law
