Litigation Commons^™

The Internet Never Forgets: A Federal Solution To The Dissemination Of Nonconsensual Pornography, Alexis Santiago

Seattle University Law Review

As technology evolves, new outlets for interpersonal conflict and crime evolve with it. The law is notorious for its inability to keep pace with this evolution. This Comment focuses on one area that the law urgently needs to regulate—the dissemination of “revenge porn,” otherwise known as nonconsensual pornography. Currently, no federal law exists in the U.S. that criminalizes the dissemination of nonconsensual pornography. Most U.S. states have criminalized the offense, but with vastly different degrees of severity, resulting in legal inconsistencies and jurisdictional conflicts. This Comment proposes a federal solution to the dissemination of nonconsensual pornography that carefully balances the …

Attorney–Client Privilege In Bad Faith Insurance Claims: The Cedell Presumption And A Necessary National Resolution, Klien Hilliard

Seattle University Law Review

Attorney–client privilege is one of the most important aspects of our legal system. It is one of the oldest privileges in American law and is codified both at the national and state level. Applying to both individual persons and corporations, this expanded privilege covers a wide breadth of clients. However, this broad privilege can sometimes become blurred in relationships between the corporation and the individuals it serves. Specifically, insurance companies and those they cover have complex relationships, as the insurer possesses a quasi-fiduciary relationship in relation to the insured. This type of relationship requires that the insurer act in good …

Salary History And The Equal Pay Act: An Argument For The Adoption Of “Reckless Discrimination” As A Theory Of Liability, Kate Vandenberg

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The Equal Pay Act (EPA) purports to prohibit employers from paying female employees less than male employees with similar qualifications; however, the affirmative defenses provided in the EPA are loopholes that perpetuate the gender pay gap. In particular, the fourth affirmative defense allows for wage differentials based on a “factor other than sex.” Many federal circuits have read this defense broadly to include wage differentials based on salary history. That is, an employer can pay a female employee less than her male counterparts because she was paid less by her previous employer. While salary history was once viewed as an …

A Class Action Lawsuit For The Right To A Minimum Education In Detroit, Carter G. Phillips

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amicus Curiae The Washington And Lee University School Of Law Black Lung Clinic In Support Of Petitioners: California V. Texas, Timothy C. Macdonnell

Scholarly Articles

Section 1556 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) makes two major changes to the Black Lung Benefits Act. These changes remove limiting language to make it simpler for disabled miners and their families to establish that they are entitled to federal benefits. First, § 1556(a) reinstates the fifteen-year rebuttable presumption, which presumptively entitles former coal miners to benefits if they have worked over fifteen years underground and have a totally disabling pulmonary disease. The second, § 1556(b), reinstates a continuation of benefits for surviving spouses whose coal-mining spouse was receiving benefits at the time of their death. …

Judges As Agents Of The Law, Daniel Harris

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Opioid Litigation, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Popular Media

The use of opioids to treat a variety of common medical conditions began in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, opioid abuse has become a serious problem in many areas of the country. Beginning around 2000, individual opioid users began to bring personal injury lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies. State and local governments also sued during this period, but they usually settled for modest amounts. At this point no one knows how the current opioid litigation will end.

The Final Frontier: Are Class Action Waivers In Broker-Dealer Employment Agreements Enforceable?, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

How would a court resolve a broker-dealer's action to enforce its class action waiver, which would require the court to disregard FINRA Rule 13204? The Supreme Court has identified one exception to the FAA's mandate: if a “contrary congressional command” displaces the FAA. Thus far, the Court has not had occasion to examine whether a class action waiver in a broker-dealer's employment agreement with an employee is enforceable under this exception. While the Court seems very supportive of these waivers, the securities industry is different. Securities arbitration is heavily regulated, and pronouncements by the SEC--when exercising power expressly delegated to …

Feminist Equality Rights Litigation: Evolution Of The Canadian Legal Landscape, Fay Faraday

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

This publication was created as part of LEAF’s Feminist Strategic Litigation (FSL) Project. The FSL Project examines the use and impact of feminist strategic litigation to help LEAF, feminists, and gender equality advocates more effectively combat systemic discrimination and oppression.

Recognizing that the legal fight for equality remains a work in progress, this report examines how the landscape of Canadian equality rights litigation has evolved since 1985. It looks both at how the legal meaning of equality has evolved and how feminists have developed distinct ways of working to advance equality. The report examines:

(i) strengths and successes of …

Litigating Welfare Rights: Medicaid, Snap, And The Legacy Of The New Property, Andrew Hammond

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress was poised to make deep cuts to the nation’s two-largest anti-poverty programs: Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as “food stamps.” Yet, despite having a unified, GOP-led federal government for the first time in over a decade, those efforts failed. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration and its allies in state government continue to pursue different strategies to roll back entitlements to medical and food assistance. As public interest lawyers challenge these agency actions in federal court , roughly five million Americans’ health insurance and food assistance hang in the balance. This Article …

The Pursuit Of Comprehensive Education Funding Reform Via Litigation, Lisa Scruggs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion: The Right To Education: With Liberty, Justice, And Education For All?

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

How To Deter Pedestrian Deaths: A Utilitarian Perspective On Careless Driving, John Clennan

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rico Extraterritoriality, Rjr Nabisco And Shareholder Residence – A Key Consideration In Determining Rico Domestic Injury, Laurence A. Steckman, Esq., Adam J. Rader, Esq.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trial Practice And Procedure, Brandon L. Peak, Joseph M. Colwell, Christopher B. Mcdaniel, Rory A. Weeks, Ramsey B. Prather, Michael F. Williford

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses several significant opinions and legislation of interest to the Georgia civil trial practitioner issued during the survey period of this publication.

• Appeals
• Apportionment
• Attorney's Fees
• Damages
• Discovery, Evidence, and Sanctions
• Dismissal and Renewal
• Jurisdiction and Venue
• Jury Instructions
• Offers of Judgment
• Statutes of Limitations

Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Losses: The Cases For And Against Coverage, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

The financial consequences of the government-ordered shutdowns of businesses across America to mitigate the COVID-19 health crisis are enormous. Estimates indicate that small businesses have lost $255 to $431 billion per month and more than 44 million workers have been laid off. When businesses have requested reimbursement of their business interruption losses from their insurers under business interruption policies, their insurers have denied the claims. The insurance industry also has announced that business interruption policies do not cover pandemic losses, so they intend to fight COVID-19 claims “tooth and nail.” More than 450 lawsuits throughout the country already have been …

Masthead, Jtaa Editors

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

International Law - Extrajudicial Killings: Acts Of Terrorism Or Acts Of Elaborate Cover-Ups: Sullivan V. Republic Of Cuba, 891 F.3d 6 (1st Cir. 2018), Stephanie M. Sader

Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Robert Klonoff

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This Symposium is entitled, “Class Actions, Mass Torts, and MDLs: The Next 50 Years.” It consists of a collection of articles by leading scholars and practitioners. All of the articles were presented at a live conference—co-sponsored by the Pound Civil Justice Institute—held at Lewis & Clark Law School on November 1 and 2, 2019.

Layers Of Lawyers: Parsing The Complexities Of Claimant Representation In Mass Tort Mdls, Lynn A. Baker, Stephen J. Herman

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The individual plaintiff in an MDL is subject to the efforts and decisions of numerous different attorneys, including many whom the plaintiff did not choose but who stand to share in any fees resulting from the plaintiff’s case. Which lawyers effectively represent the MDL plaintiff, at what point(s) in time, for what purpose(s), and with what obligations and potential liability to that plaintiff? What obligations and potential liability do the MDL leadership attorneys have to their own individually retained clients and other litigants in the MDL, and how should these attorneys handle any perceived conflicts in their obligations to the …