Torts Commons^™

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 …

Identity Manipulation: Responding To Advances In Artificial Intelligence And Robotics, Suzie Dunn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics technologies have destabilized our ability to control our identity. Today, it is increasingly accessible for the average person to appropriate the voice, image, and body of another individual through the use of technology. Deepfake videos swap new faces into existing videos, facial re-enactment allows for the face of one person to be superimposed on the face of someone else in a real time video, artificial speech synthesis can clone another person’s voice, and 3D printing and modern robotics can reproduce life-size copies of living people. These are all examples of the ways technology …

Res Ipsa Loquitur: Reducing Confusion Of Creating Bias?, John E. Lopatka, Jeffrey Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

The so-called doctrine of res ipsa loquitur has been a mystery since its birth more than a century ago. This Article helps solve the mystery. In practical effect, res ipsa loquirtur, though usually thought of as a tort doctrine, functions as a rule of trial practice that allows jurors to rely on circumstantial evidence surrounding an accident to find the defendant liable. Standard jury instructions in negligence cases, however, fail to inform jurors that they are permitted to rely upon circumstantial evidence in reaching a verdict. Why, then, is another, more specific circumstantial evidence charge necessary or desirable?

We …

Protecting Local News Outlets From Fatal Legal Expenses, Nicole J. Ligon

Faculty Scholarship

As lawsuits targeting the press continue to rise in response to today’s political climate, local news outlets are more likely to find themselves facing unexpected legal expenses. Although the national news media can generally weather the costs of libel lawsuits and subpoena requests, smaller news outlets have gone bankrupt or barely escaped such a fate while paying off legal fees, even when these outlets have ultimately been successful in their legal battles. Because local news outlets serve a critical role in underserved communities and are powerful agents of positive social change, they ought to be protected against fatal legal expenses. …

Foreword: State Enforcement In An Interstate World, Margaret H. Lemos

Faculty Scholarship

“State Enforcement in an Interstate World” is an important topic—fully deserving of all the attention it has received. Past commentators on this topic have generally treated the federal government as a unitary entity. Building on prior work on the subject, this Article explores the polycentric nature of federal regulatory authority and shows how cooperation and rivalry have long been dominant realities of the modern administrative state. The Article discusses how these dynamics complicate analysis of state enforcement in an interstate world and identifies strategies for reducing the frequency and magnitude of the seemingly inevitable conflicts.

The Conscience Defense To Malpractice, Nadia N. Sawicki

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article presents the first empirical study of state conscience laws that establish explicit procedural protections for medical providers who refuse to participate in providing reproductive health services, including abortion, sterilization, contraception, and emergency contraception.

Scholarship and public debate about law's role in protecting health care providers' conscience rights typically focus on who should be protected, what actions should be protected, and whether there should be any limitations on the exercise of conscience rights. This study, conducted in accordance with best methodological practices from the social sciences for policy surveillance and legal mapping, is the first to provide concrete data …

Ai Entities As Ai Agents: Artificial Intelligence Liability And The Ai Respondeat Superior Analogy, Anat Lior

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Torts: Just Walk Away: How An Overbroad Foreseeability Of Harm Standard Could Kill “Curbside Consultations” — Warren V. Dinter, 926 N.W.2d 370 (Minn. 2019), Erika Miller

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Retrievable Images On Social Media Platforms: A Call For A New Privacy Tort, Zahra Takhshid

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Law Against Family Separation, Carrie F. Cordero, Heidi Li Feldman, Chimène Keitner

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article offers the first comprehensive assessment of how domestic and international law limits the U.S. government’s ability to separate foreign children from the adults accompanying them when they seek to enter the United States. As early as March 6, 2017, then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he was considering separating families at the border as a deterrent to illegal immigration as part of a “zero tolerance” policy whereby the Trump administration intended the strictest enforcement of immigration law against those migrants coming to the U.S. southern border . Kelly did not say upon what …

The Chilling Effect Claims In ‘Zeran V. Aol’, Jonathon W. Penney

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Product Liability, Franklin P. Brannen Jr., Marcus Strong, Sean P. Robinson

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys developments in Georgia product liability law between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2019.1 It covers noteworthy cases decided during this period by the Georgia Supreme Court, Georgia Court of Appeals, and the United States district courts located in Georgia.

• Product Liability Claims
• Elements
• Defenses
• Spoilation
• Expert Testimony—The Daubert Standard

Torts, Jarome E. Gautreaux

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses recent cases decided during the two-year survey period in the area of torts. It includes cases in most of the areas of tort law, including medical malpractice, and addresses defenses such as immunity.

• Immunity
• Ante Litem Notices
• Food Poisoning
• Premises Liability
• Medical Negligence
• Wrongful Death

How Can We End #Cancelculture—Tort Liability Or Thumper’S Rule?, Nanci K. Carr

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In the Disney film Bambi, when the young rabbit Thumper says that Bambi “is kinda wobbly” and “doesn’t walk too good,” Thumper’s mother tells him “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” The Des Moines Register seems to have forgotten Thumper’s Rule when it uncovered Carson King’s teenage tweets and canceled the relationship he had built with Busch Light while raising $3 million for the Stead Family Children’s Hospital. #CancelCulture is a social media phenomenon, where some people use their voices to cancel the platform enjoyed by others. It is the 2019 equivalent of the …

Science Or Status Quo? Disregard For A Defendant's Mental Illness In Tort Suits, Gabrielle Lindquist

Washington Law Review Online

Mental illness is almost never considered when courts determine whether a defendant is liable for a tort. Nearly every United States jurisdiction—Washington state included—declines to offer a modified “reasonable person” standard for negligent tort defendants with mental illnesses or any form of mental illness-based affirmative defense for intentional tort defendants. There is much debate about whether tort law should evolve to accommodate defendants with mental illnesses. This Comment seeks to dive deeper into why that debate persists.

Although there are numerous justifications for this current state of tort law, the most common rationalizations given are twofold. First, that the primary …

Hands Off The Wheel: The Role Of Law In The Coming Extinction Of Human-Driven Cars, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

Law and technology scholars have been writing about the coming release of fully autonomous vehicles for quite some time, and yet there is a significant gap in that literature. The United States has experienced a technology-driven upheaval in transportation once already, and it did so almost exactly 100 years ago when society transitioned (surprisingly rapidly) from horses to automobiles. No legal scholar has, as of yet, explored that transition at any length and asked what it can teach us about the role law and lawmaking should play in the coming transition between human-driven and fully autonomous vehicles. This is a …

Rhode Island Industrial-Recreational Building Authority V. Capco Endurance, Llc, 203 A.3d 494 (R.I. 2019), Kerri A. Schulz

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rescuing Our Democracy By Rethinking New York Times Co. V. Sullivan, David A. Logan

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Barrios The Death Knell Of Bosh Claims? The Sovereign Immunity Battle Between The Oklahoma Supreme Court And Legislature Over Constitutional Torts, Hayley Stillwell

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Injustice Of New York’S Notice Of Claim Limitations In Medical Malpractice Actions, Jessica Simon

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.