Clarifying Washington's Approach To The Independent Duty Doctrine,
2020
University of Washington School of Law
Clarifying Washington's Approach To The Independent Duty Doctrine, Margaret Wykowski
Washington Law Review
When faced with limited or no recovery under contract law, resourceful lawyers often turn to tort law. The economic loss rule restricts this practice by barring recovery in tort for solely economic losses. However, what qualifies as “economic loss” is not always clear. In 2010, the Washington State Supreme Court announced it was clarifying the economic loss rule by adopting the independent duty doctrine. Rather than analyze the type of loss suffered, the independent duty doctrine determines whether a party owed a tort duty independent of the relevant contract, closely mirroring a traditional tort inquiry. When establishing the independent duty …
The Neglect Of Persons With Severe Brain Injury To The United States: An International Human Rights Analysis,
2020
University of Miami School of Law
The Neglect Of Persons With Severe Brain Injury To The United States: An International Human Rights Analysis, Tamar Ezer, Megan S. Wright, Joseph J. Wright
Articles
Brain injury contributes more to death and disability globally than any other traumatic incident. While the past decade has seen significant medical advances, laws and policies remain stumbling blocks to treatment and care. The quality of life of persons with severe brain injury often declines with unnecessary institutionalization and inadequate access to rehabilitation and assistive technologies. This raises a host of rights violations that are hidden, given that persons with severe brain injury are generally invisible and marginalized. This article highlights the current neglect and experiences of persons with severe brain injury in the United States, analyzing the rights to …
The Right Of Publicity As Market Regulator In The Age Of Social Media,
2020
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
The Right Of Publicity As Market Regulator In The Age Of Social Media, Barbara Bruni
Cardozo Law Review
No abstract provided.
Held Accountable: Should Gun Manufacturers Be Held Liable For The Criminal Use Of Their Products,
2020
Pepperdine University
Held Accountable: Should Gun Manufacturers Be Held Liable For The Criminal Use Of Their Products, Benjamin Caryan
The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law
This comment starts with a review of the most stringent laws currently enacted. After going over what is enacted, it will discuss the reasons given as to why gun manufacturers should be held liable and under what theories, including tort liability and public nuisance theories. Next, it will cover novel approaches to the strict liability, including arguments like negligent distribution, entrustment, and marketing. It will discuss similarities between the tobacco, automobile, and alcohol industry with the firearms industry. It will then go over how the recent push for gun legislation affected the sale and purchase of firearms. Lastly, to summarize, …
Anti-Slapp Coverage And The First Amendment: Hurdles To Defamation Suits In Political Campaigns,
2020
Belmont University College of Law
Anti-Slapp Coverage And The First Amendment: Hurdles To Defamation Suits In Political Campaigns, David L. Hudson Jr.
Law Faculty Scholarship
Defamation cases often arise out of intemperate or offensive statements made in political campaigns. These comments may refer to a candidate’s criminal history, familial conduct, or other matters. Whatever the subject, emotions undoubtedly run high during hotly contested campaigns. However, First Amendment protection is at its zenith when speakers engage in political speech, and speech about political candidates is inherently political speech. Thus, defamation suits arising out of political campaigns face significant hurdles, including (1) anti-SLAPP statutes and a greater public awareness of SLAPP suits; (2) a history and tradition of mudslinging and enhanced protection of political speech during political …
Who Sells? Testing Amazon.Com For Product Defect Liability In Pennsylvania And Beyond,
2020
Brooklyn Law School
Who Sells? Testing Amazon.Com For Product Defect Liability In Pennsylvania And Beyond, Aaron Doyer
Journal of Law and Policy
Pennsylvania, like other states, has struggled over the past few decades to apply the policy principles of product defect law—a tort characterized by strict liability. Because strict liability bypasses the traditional requirement in tort that a plaintiff prove the defendant’s negligence, and instead requires only a showing that the plaintiff was injured by a product sold in a defective condition, these inquiries raise a deceptively simple question: who sells? Recently, in a landmark case in Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit made waves by declaring Amazon.com, an enormous online marketplace, the legal “seller” of a product shipped and sold by a vendor …
Theory Of The Nudnik: The Future Of Consumer Activism And What We Can Do To Stop It,
2020
Vanderbilt University Law School
Theory Of The Nudnik: The Future Of Consumer Activism And What We Can Do To Stop It, Yonathan A. Arbel, Roy Shapira
Vanderbilt Law Review
How do consumers hold sellers accountable and enforce market norms? This Article contributes to our understanding of consumer markets in three ways. First, the Article identifies the role of a small subset of consumers—the titular “nudniks”—as engines of market discipline. Nudniks are those who call to complain, speak with managers, post online reviews, and file lawsuits. Typified by an idiosyncratic utility function and certain unique personality traits, nudniks pursue action where most consumers remain passive. Although derided in courtrooms and the court of public opinion, we show that nudniks can solve consumer collective action problems, leading to broad market improvements. …
Calculating Compensation Sums For Private Law Wrongs: Underlying Imprecisions, Necessary Questions, And Toward A Plausible Account Of Damages For Lost Years Of Life,
2020
NYU School of Law
Calculating Compensation Sums For Private Law Wrongs: Underlying Imprecisions, Necessary Questions, And Toward A Plausible Account Of Damages For Lost Years Of Life, Michael Pressman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The ubiquitous corrective-justice goals of “making a party whole” or “returning a party to the position she was in” are typically understood in monetary terms, and in this context, it is fairly clear what these terms mean. If, as this Article argues, these corrective-justice goals should instead be understood in terms of something that has intrinsic value, such as happiness, various imprecisions come to the fore. This Article identifies and explores these imprecisions and, in so doing, articulates a novel framework that can be used for understanding and systematizing our approach to private law remedies. This is the Article’s first …
When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance,
2020
California State University
When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance, Hilary Silvia, Nanci K. Carr
Michigan Technology Law Review
If a virtual-world-game character is cast upon real-world property without the consent of the landowner, inducing or encouraging players to trespass, is the virtual-world creator liable for damages? The United States Supreme Court has recognized that digital technology presents novel issues, the resolution of which must anticipate its further rapid development. It is beyond dispute that protective legislation will be unable to keep up with rapidly evolving technology. The burden of anticipating and addressing issues presented by emerging technologies will ultimately fall upon the businesses responsible for generating them. This duty was most notably adopted by the creators of Pokémon …
An Essay On The Quieting Of Products Liability Law,
2020
Brooklyn Law School
An Essay On The Quieting Of Products Liability Law, Aaron D. Twerskii
Cornell Law Review
For several decades, courts and commentators have disagreed as to whether the standard for liability in product design defect cases should be based on risk-utility tradeoffs or disappointed consumer expectations. Although a strong majority opt for risk-utility a significant minority of courts adopt the consumer expectations test. This Essay contends that as a practical matter in jurisdictions that allow for recovery in design defect cases on a consumer expectations theory, plaintiffs introduce a reasonable alternative design as the predicate for recovery. In fifteen of the seventeen states that allow recovery based on consumer expectations the author could not find a …
Tort As Private Administration,
2020
Yale University
Tort As Private Administration, Nathaniel Donahue, John Fabian Witt
Cornell Law Review
What does tort law do? This Article develops an account of the law of torts for the age of settlement. A century ago, leading torts jurists proposed that tort doctrine's main function was to allocate authority between judge and jury. In the era of the disappearing trial, we propose that tort law's hidden function is to shape the process by which private parties settle. In particular, core doctrines in tort help to structure and sustain the systems of private administration by which injury claims are actually resolved. Though an observer could hardly guess it from judge-centric theories of tort or …
Aging Out Arbitration For Wrongful Death Suits In Nursing Homes,
2020
Pepperdine University
Aging Out Arbitration For Wrongful Death Suits In Nursing Homes, Courtney Dyer
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
The first section of this article will discuss the significance of removing arbitration agreements from wrongful death claims and implementing mediation instead. The second section will detail the background of arbitration clauses in nursing homes. The third section will review state acts that have opposed the use of arbitration agreements for wrongful death claims in nursing homes. The fourth section will analyze cases that have challenged arbitration agreements in nursing homes for wrongful death claims. The fifth section will propose compulsory mediation and multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses as substitutes for arbitration clauses. Finally, the sixth section will consider potential objections …
The Sharing Revolution: Changing Times Call For Clarifying Tort Liability,
2020
Louisiana State University Law Center
The Sharing Revolution: Changing Times Call For Clarifying Tort Liability, Cecilia G. Vazquez
Louisiana Law Review
The article discusses the need to reform tort liability laws in the U.S. to resolve the legal ambiguities with respect to the liabilities of sharing-economy companies and other players in the industry.
A Better Interpretation Of The Wrongful Death Act,
2020
University of Maine School of Law
A Better Interpretation Of The Wrongful Death Act, Dennis M. Doiron
Maine Law Review
A viable fetus is not a person under the wrongful death act, declared the Maine Law Court in a controversial decision in 1988. To reach this conclusion, the court employed one traditional and one new rule of statutory interpretation, and one traditional rule of law. The traditional rule of interpretation-that the wrongful death act is to be strictly construed because it is in derogation of the common law-dates from the earliest wrongful death cases heard by the court. The new rule of interpretation-that the death statute must be harmonized with the Maine Uniform Probate Code-derives from the enactment of the …
The Heavy Hand Of Amazon: A Seller Not A Neutral Platform,
2020
Brooklyn Law School
The Heavy Hand Of Amazon: A Seller Not A Neutral Platform, Aaron D. Twerski, Edward J. Janger
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
[Auto-Reply] I’M Driving—I’Ll Get Back To You Later: Why New York Should Recognize Texters As Co-Creators Of Risk,
2020
Buffalo Law Review
[Auto-Reply] I’M Driving—I’Ll Get Back To You Later: Why New York Should Recognize Texters As Co-Creators Of Risk, Courtney A. Way
Buffalo Law Review
No abstract provided.
Reflections On The Effects Of Federalism On Opioid Policy,
2020
Emory University School of Law
Reflections On The Effects Of Federalism On Opioid Policy, Matthew B. Lawrence
Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)
No abstract provided.
The Opioid Litigation: The Fda Is Mia,
2020
NYU School of Law
The Opioid Litigation: The Fda Is Mia, Catherine M. Sharkey
Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)
It is readily agreed that federal preemption of state tort law alters the balance between federal and state power. Federal preemption is a high-profile defense in almost all modern products liability cases. It is thus surprising to see how little attention has been given to federal preemption by courts and commentators in the opioid litigation. Opioid litigation provides a lens through which I explore the role of state and federal courts and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in striking the right balance of power. My purpose here is not to resolve the divide among the few courts that have …
Borrowing American Ideas To Improve Chinese Tort Law,
2020
St. Mary's University School of Law
Borrowing American Ideas To Improve Chinese Tort Law, Yongxia Wang
St. Mary's Law Journal
As China develops its modern jurisprudence it faces a choice between emulating the legal frameworks of civil law countries or common law countries. Thus far, the civil law path has allowed for a rapid expansion of Chinese tort law, but jurists have found difficulty in applying such generalized statutory schemes with the absence of supporting judicial interpretation. Cognizant of the differences between the public policy of common law countries and China, Vincent Johnson’s Mastering Torts (Měiguó Qīnquán Fǎ) provides this guidance through the lens of American tort law. The hornbook takes care to simplify the role of judicial …
Strict Liability Upon Gunowners (Slug): A Proposed Balanced Approach,
2020
St. Mary's University
Strict Liability Upon Gunowners (Slug): A Proposed Balanced Approach, David Louis
St. Mary's Law Journal
Careless or apathetic gunowners, whose lost or stolen firearms are used in the commission of a violent crime, should be held strictly liable. Current tort law leaves victims of gun violence and their families without a mode of redress against an irresponsible gun owner whose actions played a pivotal role in the victim’s ultimate injury. Without effective liability principles to regulate gun ownership, gunowners are provided de facto immunity regardless of whether the harm suffered by the victim is intertwined with the gunowners careless behavior. This comment examines the efficacy of existing tort liability principles as provided in the Restatement …
