Charting a Future for the Civil Jury System

Charting a Future for the Civil Jury System
Author: Robert E. Litan
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2005-01-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780815797609

Juries are the one place where common citizens play an important part in the governmental process. But both the jury system and the American legal system itself have been under attack. Juries have been reduced in size, their selection procedures altered, and the unanimity requirement suspended. Many now question the ability of lay jurors to decide increasingly complex technical and scientific questions arising in civil suits and have advocated sharp limitations on the right to a jury trial. At the same time, the civil justice system itself has been criticized for the high and rising costs of litigation, along with the rising number of lawsuits that have strained the capacity of many courts which have effectively curtailed access to the courts. This report of a conference in June 1992, cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the litigation section of the American Bar Association, brings together leading academic scholars, attorneys, federal and state judges, and federal and state legislative representatives and their staffs. They examine the civil jury system and offer policy recommendations to help resolve disputes in a more effective and efficient manner.

Charting a Future for the Civil Jury System

Charting a Future for the Civil Jury System
Author: American Bar Association
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 56
Release: 1992
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

" Juries are the one place where common citizens play an important part in the governmental process. But both the jury system and the American legal system itself have been under attack. Juries have been reduced in size, their selection procedures altered, and the unanimity requirement suspended. Many now question the ability of lay jurors to decide increasingly complex technical and scientific questions arising in civil suits and have advocated sharp limitations on the right to a jury trial. At the same time, the civil justice system itself has been criticized for the high and rising costs of litigation, along with the rising number of lawsuits that have strained the capacity of many courts which have effectively curtailed access to the courts. This report of a conference in June 1992, cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the litigation section of the American Bar Association, brings together leading academic scholars, attorneys, federal and state judges, and federal and state legislative representatives and their staffs. They examine the civil jury system and offer policy recommendations to help resolve disputes in a more effective and efficient manner. "

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Model Rules of Professional Conduct
Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781590318737

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Verdict

Verdict
Author: Robert E. Litan
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 557
Release: 2011-09-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 081572019X

The right to a jury trial is a fundamental feature of the American justice system. In recent years, however, aspects of the civil jury system have increasingly come under attack. Many question the ability of lay jurors to decide complex scientific and technical questions that often arise in civil suits. Others debate the high and rising costs of litigation, the staggering delay in resolving disputes, and the quality of justice. Federal and state courts, crowded with growing numbers of criminal cases, complain about handling difficult civil matters. As a result, the jury trial is effectively being challenged as a means for resolving disputes in America. Juries have been reduced in size, their selection procedures altered, and the unanimity requirement suspended. For many this development is viewed as necessary. For others, it arouses deep concern. In this book, a distinguished group of scholars, attorneys, and judges examine the civil jury system and discuss whether certain features should be modified or reformed. The book features papers presented at a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, together with an introductory chapter by Robert E. Litan. While the authors present competing views of the objectives of the civil jury system, all agree that the jury still has and will continue to have an important role in the American system of civil justice. The book begins with a brief history of the jury system and explains how juries have become increasingly responsible for decisions of great difficulty. Contributors then provide an overview of the system's objectives and discuss whether, and to what extent, actual practice meets those objectives. They summarize how juries function and what attitudes lawyers, judges, litigants, former jurors, and the public at large hold about the current system. The second half of the book is devoted to a wide range of recommendations that w

The How-to-win Trial Manual - Sixth Edition

The How-to-win Trial Manual - Sixth Edition
Author: Ralph Adam Fine
Publisher: Juris Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 697
Release: 2015-02-01
Genre: Practice of law
ISBN: 1933833165

Win More Cases and Help More Clients! Ralph Adam Fine pulls no punches. In the sixth edition of his highly acclaimed How-To-Win Trial Manual shows why the traditional ways to try a case in court are suicidal, and gives extensive examples of such suicidal advocacy by famous, high-profile, well-paid trial lawyers. In each of his examples, Ralph Adam Fine shows how the lawyers could have done a better job. This will help you hone your winning skills! Ralph Adam Fine also demonstrates why many of Irving Younger’s famous Ten Commandments of Cross-Examination are not only wrong, but why following them significantly reduces your chances of winning. Since it was first published by JURIS in 1998, Ralph Adam Fine’s The How-To-Win Trial Manual has been giving lawyers that special edge so they can win even the toughest cases. Now, in this newly revised sixth edition, The How-To-Win Trial Manual takes the unique extra step of showing how and why famed trial lawyers Vincent Bugliosi and Gerry Spence, both superb advocates, could have been even more effective in their ground breaking face-off when Bugliosi “prosecuted” and Spence “defended” Lee Harvey Oswald in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The trial, memorialized in a superb two-disc DVD set, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, was before a sitting Texas federal district-court judge and a jury of Dallas citizens taken from the Dallas jury rolls. Although the trial was more than two-decades removed from the assassination, Bugliosi and Spence managed to get as witnesses many of the people who were at the assassination and its aftermath; none of the witnesses testifying in the trial were actors. The “trial” was in London, in a replica of a Texas federal courtroom, and both Bugliosi and Spence gave it their all—preparing as they would have for a real trial, and arguing their respective positions with the gusto for which each is justifiably famous. Ralph Adam Fine has taken the transcript of the two-disc DVD set and shown with his interleaved comments, as he has done with the O.J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, and Enron (Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay) trials, as well as a federal-court antitrust trial, how Bugliosi and Spence could have been better. The Oswald chapter, new for the sixth edition, will help all trial lawyers nail the winning techniques to be successful in the courtroom. The sixth edition also gives us Ralph Adam Fine’s special insights into the strategies and trial techniques of the prosecution and defense in the murder trial of Michael Peterson, memorialized in the six-hour DVD set, Death on the Staircase. Peterson was charged with killing his wife. He claimed at trial that she accidentally fell down the stairs in their Durham, North Carolina, mansion. This chapter, too, is new for the sixth edition How-To-Win Trial Manual and it shows what works and what does not work and why. It will help lawyers avoid the common traps that sink even the best “plans well laid.” The How-To-Win Trial Manual shows how to win by using your most powerful tool: The jury’s belief that you, the lawyer, know the “truth” of the case. Ralph Adam Fine also shows how to ask questions on both direct-examination and cross-examination so the jury will know the answers before the witnesses (whether lay or expert) respond. Simply put, if you phrase your questions so that the jury answers them the way you want, before your witnesses answer and irrespective of what your adversary’s witnesses may say on cross-examination, you will win! For a further explanation of Ralph Adam Fine's - and winning - techniques, as well as what other lawyers have said about The How To Win Trial Manual, visit his website www.win-your-trial.com Ralph Adam Fine shows you how to do all of this and more! You and your clients deserve no less!

Economic Consequences of Litigation Worldwide

Economic Consequences of Litigation Worldwide
Author: Charles Platto
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 454
Release: 1999-07-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 904111095X

In 1992, The Section on Business Law of the International Bar Association established a Task Force on Economic Consequences of Litigation Worldwide to study and report on the different civil and commercial court systems throughout the world. The purpose of the Task Force was to evaluate the problems of civil litigation and propose solutions on a global scale, based on a comparative analysis of different jurisdictions, with a particular focus on commercial litigation and the economic consequences of litigation to worldwide business. The Task Force included representatives from Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom and the United States. The project was divided into three stages: Fundamentals of Commercial Litigation, Problems and Consequences, and Solutions and Proposals for Change. Economic Consequences of Litigation Worldwide is the result of six years of intensive study and effort. It includes chapters on Asia Pacific (Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore), Canada, Europe (Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland), the United Kingdom and the United States. The book provides a practical study of the various court systems throughout the world and problems and consequences of commercial litigation, along with a thoughtful analysis of proposed solutions.

Bendectin and Birth Defects

Bendectin and Birth Defects
Author: Michael D. Green
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2016-01-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1512816418

Benedictin was prescribed to more than thirty-five million American women from its introduction in 1956 until 1983, when it was withdrawn from the market. The drug's manufacturer, Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, a major U.S. pharmaceutical firm, joined a list of other companies whose product liabilities would result in precedent-setting litigation. Before it was over, the Benedictin litigation would involve 2,000 claimants over a fifteen-year period. Michael D. Green offers a comprehensive overview of the Benedictin case and highlights many of the key issues in mass toxic substances litigation, comparing individual and collective forms of litigation, and illustrating the misunderstandings between scientists and lawyers about the role of science in providing evidence for the legal system.