Blog Archives
Research Shows Explosive Growth and Ongoing Evolution of Litigation Finance
May 17, 2016
Burford’s 2016 Litigation Finance Survey shows that litigation finance continues to grow and evolve: 28 percent of private practice lawyers say their firms have used litigation finance directly—a four-fold increase since 2013 75 percent of outside counsel and 61 percent of clients predict that litigation finance will grow in the next five years 35 percent more private practice lawyers and 50 percent more clients predicted that litigation finance will grow in 2016 vs. 2014 For the first...
May 17, 2016
Burford’s 2016 Litigation Finance Survey shows that litigation finance continues to grow and evolve: 28 percent of private practice lawyers say their firms have used litigation finance directly—a four-fold increase since 2013 75 percent of outside counsel and 61 percent of clients predict that litigation finance will grow in the next five years 35 percent more private practice lawyers and 50 percent more clients predicted that litigation finance will grow in 2016 vs. 2014 For the first...
A Comprehensive Theory of Civil Settlement
May 17, 2016
A settlement is an agreement between parties to a dispute. In everyday parlance and in academic scholarship, settlement is juxtaposed to trial or some other method of dispute resolution in which a third-party factfinder ultimately picks a winner and announces a score. The “trial versus settlement” trope, however, represents a false choice; viewing settlement solely as a dispute-ending alternative to a costly trial leads to an anemic understanding of how dispute resolution should and often does...
May 17, 2016
A settlement is an agreement between parties to a dispute. In everyday parlance and in academic scholarship, settlement is juxtaposed to trial or some other method of dispute resolution in which a third-party factfinder ultimately picks a winner and announces a score. The “trial versus settlement” trope, however, represents a false choice; viewing settlement solely as a dispute-ending alternative to a costly trial leads to an anemic understanding of how dispute resolution should and often does...
Q&A with Larry Bridgesmith on Artificial Intelligence in Law
May 16, 2016
Vanderbilt Law's Bridgesmith talks with LTN on the role of AI in the modern law firm, whether machines will replace lawyers, and more Artificial intelligence (AI) is a controversial topic in any industry, and when applied to lawyers, the emerging technology leads many to wonder whether AI will augment the practice of law or replace the lawyer. In this edition of Plugged In, we sat down with Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law, to discuss the issues surrounding AI's role in law....
May 16, 2016
Vanderbilt Law's Bridgesmith talks with LTN on the role of AI in the modern law firm, whether machines will replace lawyers, and more Artificial intelligence (AI) is a controversial topic in any industry, and when applied to lawyers, the emerging technology leads many to wonder whether AI will augment the practice of law or replace the lawyer. In this edition of Plugged In, we sat down with Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law, to discuss the issues surrounding AI's role in law....
Deflategate, Collective Bargaining, and Arbitration
May 16, 2016
Lisa Gelernter (SUNY-Buffalo, and a Bills fan) writes to share her take on the Second Circuit’s decision upholding the four-game suspension of Tom Brady of the Patriots for the deflate-gate scandal. [Side note: all the NFL's footballs are manufactured right here in Ada, Ohio -- come visit the factory, and ONU Law School, some time!] I've cut-and-pasted Lisa's comments here: The [Second Circuit] overturned the district court’s vacatur of what the parties (including the union) all characterized...
May 16, 2016
Lisa Gelernter (SUNY-Buffalo, and a Bills fan) writes to share her take on the Second Circuit’s decision upholding the four-game suspension of Tom Brady of the Patriots for the deflate-gate scandal. [Side note: all the NFL's footballs are manufactured right here in Ada, Ohio -- come visit the factory, and ONU Law School, some time!] I've cut-and-pasted Lisa's comments here: The [Second Circuit] overturned the district court’s vacatur of what the parties (including the union) all characterized...
The Legal Landscape of Class Arbitration Waivers in Consumer Contracts
May 16, 2016
The Supreme Court has demonstrated a growing interest in the enforcement of arbitration agreements over recent years. Beginning in 1983, Supreme Court decisions have slowly narrowed the scope for public policy arguments against the enforcement of arbitration agreements. See Moses H. Cone Mem’l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24 (1983) (stating that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) reflected a “liberal federal policy favoring arbitration”). Indeed, the FAA’s core command is freedom...
May 16, 2016
The Supreme Court has demonstrated a growing interest in the enforcement of arbitration agreements over recent years. Beginning in 1983, Supreme Court decisions have slowly narrowed the scope for public policy arguments against the enforcement of arbitration agreements. See Moses H. Cone Mem’l Hosp. v. Mercury Constr. Corp., 460 U.S. 1, 24 (1983) (stating that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) reflected a “liberal federal policy favoring arbitration”). Indeed, the FAA’s core command is freedom...
Designing Consumer Redress: A Dispute System Design (DSD) Model for Consumer-to-Business Disputes
May 16, 2016
This paper proposes a model for designing consumer dispute resolution (CDR) mechanisms (including conciliation, adjudication, arbitration and ombuds schemes).1 This field has expanded significantly in recent years, replacing courts as the primary forum of dispute resolution in some areas of consumer-to-business activity. This expansion has been ad hoc, with a lack of consistency in the design of CDR mechanisms and in the overall shape of the CDR landscape. In light of the recent implementation of the EU's...
May 16, 2016
This paper proposes a model for designing consumer dispute resolution (CDR) mechanisms (including conciliation, adjudication, arbitration and ombuds schemes).1 This field has expanded significantly in recent years, replacing courts as the primary forum of dispute resolution in some areas of consumer-to-business activity. This expansion has been ad hoc, with a lack of consistency in the design of CDR mechanisms and in the overall shape of the CDR landscape. In light of the recent implementation of the EU's...
Startup Plans to Rate Lawyers Based on Court Records and Win-Loss Stats
May 15, 2016
Two Harvard University undergraduates are preparing to launch a website that will rate lawyers based on publicly available court records. The site, called Legalist, will mine and analyze court records in order to match clients with lawyers who win similar cases based on details and location. It will also profile litigators’ win-loss records. The site is currently in beta testing and its developers hope to launch it in late summer or early fall. The testing phase is using only Massachusetts cases...
May 15, 2016
Two Harvard University undergraduates are preparing to launch a website that will rate lawyers based on publicly available court records. The site, called Legalist, will mine and analyze court records in order to match clients with lawyers who win similar cases based on details and location. It will also profile litigators’ win-loss records. The site is currently in beta testing and its developers hope to launch it in late summer or early fall. The testing phase is using only Massachusetts cases...
Towards A More Accurate Listing of Legal Tech Startups
May 15, 2016
A recent post of mine drew a lot of attention for stating that the number of legal startups had nearly tripled in two years. Relying on the Angel List roster of legal startups, I observed that the number had grown from 412 two years ago to 1,094 as of the date of my post, reflecting nearly threefold growth. (Just since my post, another nine companies were added to the list.) Over at Associate’s Mind, Keith Lee did what I should have done. He took a closer look at the Angel List roster. He found...
May 15, 2016
A recent post of mine drew a lot of attention for stating that the number of legal startups had nearly tripled in two years. Relying on the Angel List roster of legal startups, I observed that the number had grown from 412 two years ago to 1,094 as of the date of my post, reflecting nearly threefold growth. (Just since my post, another nine companies were added to the list.) Over at Associate’s Mind, Keith Lee did what I should have done. He took a closer look at the Angel List roster. He found...
This Is Your Brain On A Breakup
May 15, 2016
Cognitive neuroscientists at Columbia University compared brain images of participants looking at picture of their exes to brain images of individuals prodded with a hot probe. The researchers found that same brain regions—the insula and anterior cingulate cortex—lit up when ruminating over a lost love as when experiencing physical pain. Another study, by researchers Lucy Brown and Helen Fisher, scanned the brain activity of 15 young adults who had experienced a recent unwanted breakup and reported...
May 15, 2016
Cognitive neuroscientists at Columbia University compared brain images of participants looking at picture of their exes to brain images of individuals prodded with a hot probe. The researchers found that same brain regions—the insula and anterior cingulate cortex—lit up when ruminating over a lost love as when experiencing physical pain. Another study, by researchers Lucy Brown and Helen Fisher, scanned the brain activity of 15 young adults who had experienced a recent unwanted breakup and reported...
Class Action Lawsuit Challenges PACER Fees as Excessive
May 14, 2016
A class action lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Washington, D.C., challenges the fees charged by PACER, the federal courts’ online court records system, as excessive. The lawsuit seeks to obtain relief on behalf of “all individuals and entities who have paid fees for the use of PACER within the past six years, excluding class counsel and agencies of the federal government.” The lawsuit, filed by the Alliance for Justice, the National Veterans Legal Services Program and the National...
May 14, 2016
A class action lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Washington, D.C., challenges the fees charged by PACER, the federal courts’ online court records system, as excessive. The lawsuit seeks to obtain relief on behalf of “all individuals and entities who have paid fees for the use of PACER within the past six years, excluding class counsel and agencies of the federal government.” The lawsuit, filed by the Alliance for Justice, the National Veterans Legal Services Program and the National...
