Litigation Commons^™

Evaluating And Improving The Mdl Process, Francis Mcgovern, John G. Heyburn

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The North Carolina Racial Justice Act: An Essay On Substantive And Procedural Fairness In Death Penalty Litigation, Neil Vidmar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Antibiotic Resistance, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Ten years ago, when I wrote War Stories,' copyright lawyers were fighting over the question whether unlicensed personal, noncommercial copying, performance or display would be deemed copyright infringement. I described three strategies that lawyers for book publishers, record labels, and movie studios had deployed to try to assure that the question was answered the way they wanted it to be. First, copyright owners were labeling all unlicensed uses as "piracy" on the ground that any unlicensed use might undermine copyright owners' control. That epithet helped to obscure the difference between unlicensed uses that invaded defined statutory exclusive rights and other …

The Past And Future Of Deinstitutionalization Litigation, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Articles

Two conflicting stories have consumed the academic debate regarding the impact of deinstitutionalization litigation. The first, which has risen almost to the level of conventional wisdom, is that deinstitutionalization was a disaster. The second story challenges the suggestion that deinstitutionalization has uniformly been unsuccessful, as well as the causal link critics seek to draw with the growth of the homeless population. This Article, which embraces the second story, assesses the current wave of deinstitutionalization litigation. It contends that things will be different this time. The particular outcomes of the first wave of deinstitutionalization litigation, this Article contends, resulted from the …

The Case For Trial By Formula, Alexandra Lahav

Faculty Articles and Papers

The civil justice system tolerates inconsistent outcomes in cases brought by similarly situated litigants. One reason for this is that in cases such as Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the Supreme Court has increasingly emphasized liberty over equality. The litigants’ right to a “day in court” has overshadowed their right to equal treatment. However, an emerging jurisprudence at the district court level is asserting the importance of what this Article calls “outcome equality” – equal results reached in similar cases. Taking the example of mass torts litigation, this Article explains how innovative procedures such as sampling are a solution to the problem …

A New Model Of Plaintiffs' Class Action Attorneys, Morris A. Ratner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Institutional Activism Through Litigation: An Empirical Analysis Of Public Pension Fund Participation In Securities Class Actions, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

The PSLRA’s lead plaintiff provision enlisted institutional investors to monitor class counsel in order to curb the agency costs endemic in securities class actions. This article uses a sample of 731 settlements to examine the efficacy of this provision. It finds that, even when controlling for institutional self-selection of potentially easier or higher-quality cases, cases with public pension lead plaintiffs have larger recoveries and lower fee requests and fee awards than cases with other lead plaintiff types. The article also finds evidence consistent with the existence of a significant positive externality associated with public pension participation. Over time, fee requests …

Law And The Argumentative Theory, 90 Or. L. Rev. 837 (2012), Timothy P. O'Neill

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Like many law professors, I have coached my share of moot court teams. As you probably know, in most competitions students either choose or are assigned one side of the case to brief. But for the oral argument segment of the competition, students must argue both sides of the case, “on-brief” and “off-brief,” often in alternate rounds.

At the end of a competition, with their heads still swimming with arguments and counterarguments, students will sometimes ask, “OK, so can you tell us which is the correct side?” I always say, “Of course I can. . . . The correct side …

Electronic Discovery And The Constitution: Inaccessible Justice, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Computers are the cynosure of American society. As a result, most information is stored electronically and only a small amount of information ever becomes a paper document. This explosion of electronically stored information has affected every aspect of society, including the court system. Litigation is drastically different than a few years ago due to this onset of electronically stored information. The discovery of electronically stored information in litigation has become known as electronic discovery. For many, electronic discovery is expensive and complicated, and thus, litigants are settling frivolous cases to avoid the costs and complexities of engaging in discovery to …

Forum Non Conveniens On Appeal: The Case For Interlocutory Review, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Court-access doctrine in transnational litigation is plagued by uncertainty. Without a national court-access policy, federal courts often reach inconsistent forum non conveniens decisions even on very similar facts. This inconsistency is compounded by the district court’s largely unreviewable discretion in making those forum-access decisions, which precludes effective resolution of these conflicts through the appellate process. As a result, the law underlying the forum non conveniens doctrine remains unsettled, creating systemic inefficiency both in litigation procedure and in regulatory policy.

This article, prepared for the symposium “Our Courts and the World: Transnational Litigation and Civil Procedure,” argues that expanding appellate review …

A Question Of Taste: Touchstones For Determining The Certifiability Of Classwide Claims For Declaratory And Injunctive Relief Under Rule 23 Of The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Randy D. Gordon

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Claim Accrual Under The Federal Tort Claims Act: When Should Claimants File Suit Against The Federal Bureau Of Investigation For Tort Liability, Caitlin A. Romasco

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Firearms Identification: The Need For A Critical Approach To, And Possible Guidelines For, The Admissibility Of Ballistics Evidence, Bonnie Lanigan

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Swept Under The Rug: The Brady Disclosure Obligation In A Pre-Plea Context, Daniel Conte

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Closing The Loophole In Massachusetts Protection Order Legislation To Provide Greater Security For Victims Of Sexual Assault: Has Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 258e Closed It Enough, Hayley Jodoin

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Cafa's Impact On Forum Shopping And The Manipulation Of The Civil Justice System, Kalee Difazio

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - In Protecting One's Right To Speak, The First Amendment Also Protects One's Right To Lie - 281 Care Committee V. Arneson, 638 F.3d 621 (8th Cir. 2011), Jaclyn Mcneely

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law - Use Of Equitable Tolling To Enforce Violations Of Supervised Release After Original Term Has Expired - United States V. Buchanan, 638 F.3d 448 (4th Cir. 2011), Eric Speed

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Play Through The Whistle: The Scope Of Anti-Retaliation Protection For Employee Complaints Pursuant To Erisa Section 510, James Coughlin

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Outpatient Commitment: The Role Of Counsel In Preserving Client Autonomy, R. A. Bernfeld

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.