The Preservation Obligation: Regulating And Sanctioning Pre-Litigation Spoliation In Federal Court,
2011
William & Mary Law School
The Preservation Obligation: Regulating And Sanctioning Pre-Litigation Spoliation In Federal Court, A. Benjamin Spencer
Faculty Publications
The issue of discovery misconduct, specifically as it pertains to the prelitigation duty to preserve and sanctions for spoliation, has garnered much attention in the wake of decisions by two prominent jurists whose voices carry great weight in this area. In Pension Committee of University of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of America Securities LLC, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin-of the Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC2 e-discovery casespenned a scholarly and thorough opinion setting forth her views regarding the triggering of the duty to preserve potentially relevant information pending litigation and the standards for determining the appropriate sanctions for various breaches …
Fortuity And Forensic Familial Identification,
2011
University of Baltimore School of Law
Fortuity And Forensic Familial Identification, Natalie Ram
All Faculty Scholarship
On July 7, 2010, Los Angeles police announced the arrest of a suspect in the Grim Sleeper murders, so called because of a decade-long hiatus in killings. The break in the case came when California searched its state DNA database for a genetic profile similar, but not identical, to the killer’s. DNA is inherited in specific and predictable ways, so a source-excluding partial match might indicate that a close genetic relative of the matching offender was the Grim Sleeper. California’s apparent success in this case has intensified interest in policymaking for source-excluding partial matching. To date, however, little information about …
Law Day Oral Argument Session 5th District Court Of Appeal, 2011,
2011
Florida A&M University College of Law
Law Day Oral Argument Session 5th District Court Of Appeal, 2011, Honorable Kerry I. Evander, Presiding Judge, Honorable Jay P. Cohen, Honorable Bruce W. Jacobus
Law Day Presentations
As part of the fifth annual Law Day event, a three judge panel from the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal is hearing appellate oral arguments in the FAMU College of Law Ceremonial Moot Courtroom. The first arguments are regarding evidence and jury instruction issues; the second case involves real property, mortgages and liens, as well as jurisdiction issues; the final arguments are regarding juror non-disclosure. A question-and-answer session follows each set of arguments during which the justices and attorneys entertain questions about the appellate process and organization of the court.
Through The Lens Of Federal Evidence Rule
403: An Examination Of Eyewitness
Identification Expert Testimony
Admissibility In The Federal
Circuit Courts,
2011
Washington and Lee University School of Law
Through The Lens Of Federal Evidence Rule 403: An Examination Of Eyewitness Identification Expert Testimony Admissibility In The Federal Circuit Courts, Lauren Tallent
Washington and Lee Law Review
No abstract provided.
A Common Law View Of Causation, Science And Statistical Evidence In The Courtroom,
2011
Singapore Management University
A Common Law View Of Causation, Science And Statistical Evidence In The Courtroom, Basil C. Bitas
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In March 2010, the Australian High Court in Amaca Ltd v Ellis [2010] HCA 5 (“Amaca”) moved assertively to clarify the approach of the Australian courts to causation in cases of lung disease involving multiple pathogens. The court demonstrated sensitivity to both the scientific and legal inquiries while reaffirming the obligation of plaintiffs to prove causation based on the balance of probabilities. In examining the plaintiff’s statistical evidence, the court established important guideposts regarding the proper use and interpretation of epidemiology in the courtroom, highlighting both the relevance and limits of such proof regarding causation and the satisfaction of the …
An Economic Analysis Of Fact Witness Payment,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
An Economic Analysis Of Fact Witness Payment, Eugene Kontorovich, Ezra Friedman
Faculty Working Papers
In this paper we discuss the disparate treatment of perceptual (''fact'') witnesses and expert witnesses in the legal system. We highlight the distinction between the perceptual act of witnessing and the act of testifying, and argue that although there might be good reasons to regulate payments to fact witnesses, the customary prohibition on paying them for their services is not justified by reference to economic theory. We propose considering a court mediated system for compensating fact witnesses so as to encourage witnessing of legally important events.We construct a simple model of witness incentives, and simulate the effects of several possible …
The Need For A Research Culture In The Forensic Sciences,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
The Need For A Research Culture In The Forensic Sciences, Jonathan Koehler, Jennifer L. Mnookin, Simon A. Cole, Barry A.J. Fisher, Itiel E. Dror, Max Houck, Kieth Inman, David H. Kaye, Glenn Langenburg, D. Michel Risinger, Norah Rudin, Jay Siegel
Faculty Working Papers
The methods, techniques, and reliability of the forensic sciences in general, and the pattern identification disciplines in particular, have faced significant scrutiny in recent years. Critics have attacked the scientific basis for the assumptions and claims made by forensic scientists both in and out of the courtroom. Defenders have emphasized courts' long-standing acceptance of forensic science evidence, the relative dearth of known errors, and the skill and experience of practitioners. This Article reflects an effort made by a diverse group of participants in these debates, including law professors, academics from several disciplines, and practicing forensic scientists, to find and explore …
Antitrust Review Of The At&T/T-Mobile Transaction,
2011
University of Tennessee
Antitrust Review Of The At&T/T-Mobile Transaction, Maurice E. Stucke, Allen Grunes
College of Law Faculty Scholarship
In this Essay, we review AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, Inc., under federal merger law, under the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines, and with a focus on possible remedies. We find, under a rule of law approach, that the proposed acquisition is presumptively anticompetitive, and the merging parties in their public disclosures have failed to overcome this presumption. Next we find that under the Merger Guidelines, there is reason to believe that the transaction may result in higher prices to consumers under several different plausible theories. Finally, we turn …
Foreign Law As Legislative Fact In Constitutional Cases,
2011
University of Cincinnati College of Law
Foreign Law As Legislative Fact In Constitutional Cases, A. Christopher Bryant
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
Do we really need another law review article about foreign law in constitutional interpretation? In fact, we do. In the vast literature on the subject, a fundamental point has received scant attention. In the recent rulings that have stoked the present controversy, the Supreme Court has employed foreign law not as law, but rather merely as evidence of a legislative fact made relevant by domestic constitutional law. Commentators, however, have largely directed their attention to the merits of a genuine constitutional comparativism in which foreign law serves as a model for the creation of domestic constitutional doctrine. Many commentators have …
She Blinded Me With Science: Wrongful Convictions And The "Reverse Csi-Effect",
2011
University of Cincinnati College of Law
She Blinded Me With Science: Wrongful Convictions And The "Reverse Csi-Effect", Mark A. Godsey, Marie Alou
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
Prosecutors in the United States are often heard to complain these days of the "CSI-effect."' When they make this complaint, they mean that the popularity of television shows like CSI has made it unduly difficult for them to obtain convictions of guilty defendants. Jurors today have become spoiled as a result of the proliferation of these "high-tech" forensic shows, and now unrealistically expect conclusive scientific proof of guilt before they will convict. The unfortunate result is that guilty defendants are acquitted because of a lack of forensic evidence in cases where, in reality, no such forensic evidence was possible or …
What Will We Lose If The Trial Vanishes?,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
What Will We Lose If The Trial Vanishes?, Robert P. Burns
Faculty Working Papers
The number of trials continues to decline andfederal civil trials have almost completely disappeared. This essay attempts to address the significance of this loss, to answer the obvious question, "So what?" It argues against taking a resigned or complacent attitude toward an important problem for our public culture. It presents a short description of the trial's internal structure, recounts different sorts of explanations, and offers an inventory of the kinds of wounds this development would inflict.
Moral Character, Motive, And The Psychology Of Blame,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
Moral Character, Motive, And The Psychology Of Blame, Janice Nadler, Mary-Hunter Morris Mcdonnell
Faculty Working Papers
Blameworthiness, in the criminal law context, is conceived as the carefully calculated end product of discrete judgments about a transgressor's intentionality, causal proximity to harm, and the harm's foreseeability. Research in social psychology, on the other hand, suggests that blaming is often intuitive and automatic, driven by a natural impulsive desire to express and defend social values and expectations. The motivational processes that underlie psychological blame suggest that judgments of legal blame are influenced by factors the law does not always explicitly recognize or encourage. In this Article we focus on two highly related motivational processes – the desire to …
If The Shoe Fits They Might Acquit: The Value Of Forensic Science Testimony,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
If The Shoe Fits They Might Acquit: The Value Of Forensic Science Testimony, Jonathan Koehler
Faculty Working Papers
The probative value of forensic science evidence (such as a shoeprint) varies widely depending on how the evidence and hypothesis of interest is characterized. This paper uses a likelihood ratio (LR) approach to identify the probative value of forensic science evidence. It argues that the "evidence" component should be characterized as a "reported match," and that the hypothesis component should be characterized as "the matching person or object is the source of the crime scene sample." This characterization of the LR forces examiners to incorporate risks from sample mix-ups and examiner error into their match statistics. But how will legal …
Proficiency Tests To Estimate Error Rates In The Forensic Sciences,
2011
Northwestern University School of Law
Proficiency Tests To Estimate Error Rates In The Forensic Sciences, Jonathan Koehler
Faculty Working Papers
A proficiency test is an assessment of the performance of laboratory personnel using samples whose sources are known to the proficiency test administrator but unknown to the examinee. Proficiency tests can help identify reasonable first pass estimates for the rates at which various types of errors occur. It is crucial to obtain error rate estimates because the reliability and probative value of forensic science evidence is inextricably linked to the rates at which examiners make errors. Without such information, legal decision makers have no scientifically meaningful way of thinking about the risk of false identification and false non-identification associated with …
An Overview Of The Capital Jury Project For Military Practitioners: Jury Dynamics, Juror Confusion, And Juror Responsibility,
2011
Chair and Professor, Criminal Law Department, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia
An Overview Of The Capital Jury Project For Military Practitioners: Jury Dynamics, Juror Confusion, And Juror Responsibility, Eric R. Carpenter
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
E-Discovery's Threat To Civil Litigation: Reevaluating Rule 26 For The Digital Age,
2011
University of Denver
E-Discovery's Threat To Civil Litigation: Reevaluating Rule 26 For The Digital Age, Robert M. Hardaway, Dustin D. Berger, Andrea Defield
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, even though they were amended in 2006 specifically to address the costs and scale of ediscovery, not only fail to contain the cost or scope of discovery, but, in fact, encourage expensive litigation ancillary to the merits of civil litigants' cases. This Article proposes that the solution to this dilemma is to eliminate the presumption that the producing party should pay for the cost of discovery. This rule should be abandoned in favor of a rule that would equally distribute the costs of discovery between the requesting and producing parties.
Suicide Causation Experts In Teen Wrongful Death Claims: Will They Assist The Trier Of Fact?, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 51 (2011),
2011
UIC School of Law
Suicide Causation Experts In Teen Wrongful Death Claims: Will They Assist The Trier Of Fact?, 45 J. Marshall L. Rev. 51 (2011), Andrea Maciver
UIC Law Review
No abstract provided.
Confrontation And Domestic Violence Post-Davis: Is There And Should There Be A Doctrinal Exception,
2011
Harvard Law School
Confrontation And Domestic Violence Post-Davis: Is There And Should There Be A Doctrinal Exception, Eleanor Simon
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Close to five million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults are perpetrated against women in the United States annually. Domestic violence accounts for twenty percent of all non-fatal crime experienced by women in this county. Despite these statistics, many have argued that in the past six years the Supreme Court has "put a target on [the] back" of the domestic violence victim, has "significantly eroded offender accountability in domestic violence prosecutions," and has directly instigated a substantial decline in domestic violence prosecutions. The asserted cause is the Court's complete and groundbreaking re-conceptualization of the Sixth Amendment right of a criminal …
No Good Whistle Goes Unpunished: Can We Protect European Antitrust Leniency Applications From Discovery?,
2011
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
No Good Whistle Goes Unpunished: Can We Protect European Antitrust Leniency Applications From Discovery?, Constanza Nicolosi
Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business
In recent years, the most successful tool in the antitrust arsenal of the European Commission and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has proven to be leniency programs, which provide full immunity from fines to the first cartel-member that confesses its participation in the conspiracy. Even though European and U.S. leniency programs are fairly similar to one another, procedural differences may undermine their effectiveness. It has long been argued that potential discovery of corporate statements accompanying the leniency application before the Commission in subsequent proceedings in the United States would put the firms that cooperated with the …
Jurisdictional Discovery In Transnational Litigation: Extraterritorial Effects Of United States Federal Practice,
2011
University of Missouri School of Law
Jurisdictional Discovery In Transnational Litigation: Extraterritorial Effects Of United States Federal Practice, S. I. Strong
Faculty Publications
This article describes the device in detail, distinguishing it both practically and theoretically from methods used in other common law systems to establish jurisdiction, and discusses how recent US Supreme Court precedent provides international actors with the means of limiting or avoiding this potentially burdensome procedure.
