With the Court starting to hear cases for the upcoming year on October 3, the LEC convened a balanced panel of experts to preview some of the most interesting and potentially consequential cases for the coming year. Watch as our panelists examined the civil justice-related cases on the docket, the cases where economic analysis is … Continue reading “Civil Justice Preview of the Supreme Court’s 2022-2023 Term”
Johnson v. M’Intosh, decided in 1823, dealt with so-called acquisition by discovery and conquest and the need to choose between competing claims to property ownership from divergent chains of title, consequently affecting the rights of indigenous peoples and the rules governing transfer of property in the early days of the United States. It remains a … Continue reading “Webinar: Johnson v. M’Intosh: Reflections on the 200th Anniversary of a Foundational Case on Property Law and Indigenous Rights in the United States”
For several years now, plaintiffs — and, in particular state and local city or county governments — have been filing claims against energy producers and others, including trade associations for these companies seeking billions in climate change damages in civil lawsuits where they claim these defendants are liable for climate change harms. The dominant … Continue reading “The Evolving Climate Change Litigation Landscape: The Rise of Consumer Deception Claims”
Existing state and federal statutes and proposed bills with “private rights of action,” or PRAs, seek to deputize ordinary citizens to file civil lawsuits to enforce laws and vindicate the public policies in legislation that authorizes the PRAs. These lawsuits can be brought by what are sometimes called “private attorneys general” or “bounty hunters” regardless … Continue reading “State and Federal “Private Right of Action” Legislation: Are These Mechanisms Wise or Worrisome?”
Third Party Litigation Funding (TPLF) is an increasingly used mechanism for financing lawsuits that is similarly coming under increasing scrutiny. With TPLF, third part financiers “invest” in lawsuits with an expected return on their investment by getting a cut of any judgment award or settlement received by their funded plaintiff. Sophisticated funders develop diverse portfolios … Continue reading “Update on the Debate Over Third Party Litigation Finance”
Our panel of experts, each with deep experience litigating before the US Supreme Court, provided analysis on some of the most important decisions released by the Court across its past term. The panelists particularly focused on those cases decided by the Court that are most relevant for the future of civil justice, those to which … Continue reading “Civil Justice Review of the Supreme Court’s 2022-2023 Term”
Key to understanding law and economics is mastering an appreciation for the idea that resources are scarce, that with every choice there is a cost (i.e. life is full of tradeoffs and opportunity costs), that market order emerges spontaneously through a complex system of human interactions made easier by specialization of labor and the coordinating … Continue reading “How Little Policymakers Know About What They Imagine They Can Design”
With the Court starting to hear cases for the upcoming year on October 2, a balanced panel of experts previewed some of the most interesting and potentially consequential cases for the coming year. The panelists focused on the civil justice-related cases on the docket, the cases where economic analysis is most at play, … Continue reading “Civil Justice Preview of the Supreme Court’s 2023-2024 Term”
Investment in litigation by third parties — i.e., when neither the litigants nor lawyers on contingency are the primary funders for a case (often labelled “Third Party Litigation Financing” (TPLF)) — is increasing in frequency and scrutiny. Indeed, because current disclosure rules rarely work to reveal TPLF’s existence in a case, much of TPLF is … Continue reading “The Economics of Law Firm Ownership: Should There be Limits on Who Can Own Law Firms?”
Legal disputes increasingly require the use of expert witnesses to explain what science says about the safety of various products and technologies. With billions of dollars and thousands of lives at stake, the way courts resolve scientific questions is important to everyone. However, courts apply widely varying standards from state to state for evaluating … Continue reading “Progress on Evidentiary Rules Reform in the States: Is It Needed and, if so, How Does It Get Done?”
