Hoffman V. Red Owl Stores And The Limits Of The Legal Method,
2010
Columbia Law School
Hoffman V. Red Owl Stores And The Limits Of The Legal Method, Robert E. Scott
Faculty Scholarship
According to the overwhelming majority view, promissory estoppel is not an appropriate ground for legally enforcing statements made during preliminary negotiations unless there is a “clear and unambiguous promise” on which the counterparty reasonably and foreseeably relies. Bill Whitford and Stewart Macaulay were among the first scholars to note the apparent absence of such a promise in the case of Hoffman v. Red Owl Stores. Several years ago, after studying the trial record, I concluded that the best explanation for the breakdown in negotiations was the fundamental misunderstanding between the parties as to the amount and nature of Hoffmann’s …
The Challenges Of Calculating The Benefits Of Providing Access To Legal Services,
2010
University of Michigan Law School
The Challenges Of Calculating The Benefits Of Providing Access To Legal Services, J. J. Prescott
Articles
In this invited essay, I explore how policymakers and other public-interested actors have empirically calculated the benefits of providing low-income access to civil legal services in the past, and how they might improve upon existing methods going forward. My argument proceeds in five parts. First, I briefly explain the optimal approach to allocating public funds from a welfare economics perspective. Second, I introduce the challenges of valuing “benefits” in the context of the public provision of legal services. Third, I summarize and critique existing attempts to quantify the benefits of and need for legal services funding. Specifically, I review, criticize, …
