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Ten Planning Lessons From Barbara Bush
June 1, 2018
Matriarch Barbara Bush left this life the same way that she lived, with dignity and class. Her end-of-life planning was ample enough to provide clear instructions to direct those around her. Here are 10 takeaways for clients based on what we know about vigilant end-of-life plans: Understand Probate Probate can be timely, expensive, and anything that occurs in probate is public knowledge. Plan for Contingencies Always have a backup plan in estate documents, such as for when a trustee...
June 1, 2018
Matriarch Barbara Bush left this life the same way that she lived, with dignity and class. Her end-of-life planning was ample enough to provide clear instructions to direct those around her. Here are 10 takeaways for clients based on what we know about vigilant end-of-life plans: Understand Probate Probate can be timely, expensive, and anything that occurs in probate is public knowledge. Plan for Contingencies Always have a backup plan in estate documents, such as for when a trustee...
Myths About Abraham Maslow and Self-Actualisation
May 31, 2018
Maslow’s most penetrating idea is that we have a hierarchy of needs, proceeding from physiological needs like water or warmth, through safety, love, esteem and then self-actualisation. He argued that lower needs occupy our attention when they are unmet and make it more difficult to fulfil the higher ones – including self-actualisation, which is about becoming the self you always had the potential to be. Compton first deals with the charge that this work is ascientific. He finds there is a lack...
May 31, 2018
Maslow’s most penetrating idea is that we have a hierarchy of needs, proceeding from physiological needs like water or warmth, through safety, love, esteem and then self-actualisation. He argued that lower needs occupy our attention when they are unmet and make it more difficult to fulfil the higher ones – including self-actualisation, which is about becoming the self you always had the potential to be. Compton first deals with the charge that this work is ascientific. He finds there is a lack...
SCOTUS Adds Another Class Arbitration Case To Its Docket
May 31, 2018
Today the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in another case involving the Federal Arbitration Act. The case, Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, comes from the Ninth Circuit and raises a variation of the question from Sutter: how clear does an arbitration agreement need to be to show the parties authorized class arbitration? My initial summary of the Ninth Circuit opinion is here. It didn’t even merit an entire post of its own, but shared time with another circuit court opinion. ...
May 31, 2018
Today the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in another case involving the Federal Arbitration Act. The case, Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, comes from the Ninth Circuit and raises a variation of the question from Sutter: how clear does an arbitration agreement need to be to show the parties authorized class arbitration? My initial summary of the Ninth Circuit opinion is here. It didn’t even merit an entire post of its own, but shared time with another circuit court opinion. ...
Deterrence and Aggregate Litigation
May 30, 2018
This paper examines the deterrence properties of aggregate litigation and class actions, with an emphasis on positive value claims. In the multiple victim scenario with positive value claims, in the absence of the class action device, the probability that an individual victim will bring suit falls toward zero with geometric decay as the number of victims increases. The reason is that the incentive to free ride increases with the number of victims. Deterrence does not collapse but is degraded. Undercompliance...
May 30, 2018
This paper examines the deterrence properties of aggregate litigation and class actions, with an emphasis on positive value claims. In the multiple victim scenario with positive value claims, in the absence of the class action device, the probability that an individual victim will bring suit falls toward zero with geometric decay as the number of victims increases. The reason is that the incentive to free ride increases with the number of victims. Deterrence does not collapse but is degraded. Undercompliance...
Summary Disposal In Arbitration and Tribunals’ Ability To Order Summary Procedure Without Express Authority
May 30, 2018
The fundamental question is whether tribunals’ general power to conduct arbitral proceedings in a fair and efficient manner enables them to order a summary procedure in circumstances where the parties have not expressly agreed such procedure. The answer to this question can have important and costly ramifications. More broadly, the availability of summary disposal as part of the arbitration process can potentially impact the way in which arbitration may be perceived and used in the future. Certain...
May 30, 2018
The fundamental question is whether tribunals’ general power to conduct arbitral proceedings in a fair and efficient manner enables them to order a summary procedure in circumstances where the parties have not expressly agreed such procedure. The answer to this question can have important and costly ramifications. More broadly, the availability of summary disposal as part of the arbitration process can potentially impact the way in which arbitration may be perceived and used in the future. Certain...
On Preferring A to B, While Also Preferring B to A
May 29, 2018
In important contexts, people prefer option A to option B when they evaluate the two separately, but prefer option B to option A when they evaluate the two jointly. In consumer behavior, politics, and law, such preference reversals present serious puzzles about rationality and behavioral biases. They are often a product of the pervasive problem of "evaluability." Some important characteristics of options are difficult or impossible to assess in separate evaluation, and hence choosers disregard or downplay...
May 29, 2018
In important contexts, people prefer option A to option B when they evaluate the two separately, but prefer option B to option A when they evaluate the two jointly. In consumer behavior, politics, and law, such preference reversals present serious puzzles about rationality and behavioral biases. They are often a product of the pervasive problem of "evaluability." Some important characteristics of options are difficult or impossible to assess in separate evaluation, and hence choosers disregard or downplay...
Mississippi Clarifies When “Evident Miscalculation” Exists To Modify An Arbitration Award
May 29, 2018
The Supreme Court of Mississippi issued a new opinion that sheds light on a topic that doesn’t come up often: when can an arbitration award be modified due to miscalculation? D.W. Caldwell, Inc. v. W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., 2018 WL 2146355 (Miss. May 10, 2018). On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the trial court decision and instructed that the original award be confirmed. In doing so, it established some guidelines for handling these types of motions...
May 29, 2018
The Supreme Court of Mississippi issued a new opinion that sheds light on a topic that doesn’t come up often: when can an arbitration award be modified due to miscalculation? D.W. Caldwell, Inc. v. W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., 2018 WL 2146355 (Miss. May 10, 2018). On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the trial court decision and instructed that the original award be confirmed. In doing so, it established some guidelines for handling these types of motions...
Persuasive Tactics To Close Your Next Deal
May 28, 2018
A good business deal should bring genuine benefit to both parties. Rather than manipulating someone to do what you want, the art of persuasion convinces a potential business partner, or buyer, of the genuine worth of the deal you’re offering. Ethical persuasion also helps overcome unwarranted hesitation by the other party. Sometimes, people have difficulty pulling the trigger on even attractive and beneficial deals. Whether you’re trying to boost conversions or sell your business in general,...
May 28, 2018
A good business deal should bring genuine benefit to both parties. Rather than manipulating someone to do what you want, the art of persuasion convinces a potential business partner, or buyer, of the genuine worth of the deal you’re offering. Ethical persuasion also helps overcome unwarranted hesitation by the other party. Sometimes, people have difficulty pulling the trigger on even attractive and beneficial deals. Whether you’re trying to boost conversions or sell your business in general,...
The Interplay Between Arbitration Clauses in Employment Contracts and Labor Laws
May 28, 2018
A recent case out of the Southern District of California, Davis v. Red Eye Jack's Sports Bar, Inc., Case No.: 3-17-cv-01111-BEN-JMA (behind...
May 28, 2018
A recent case out of the Southern District of California, Davis v. Red Eye Jack's Sports Bar, Inc., Case No.: 3-17-cv-01111-BEN-JMA (behind...
Feasibility of a Health‐Utility Approach to Quantifying Noneconomic Losses from Personal Injury
May 27, 2018
There is wide agreement that existing approaches to valuing noneconomic losses from personal injury lack coherence. “Health‐utility” measurement—an approach developed in health economics for valuing health outcomes in public health and medicine—holds considerable promise for bringing greater rationality and consistency to assessments of injury‐related noneconomic loss. However, the feasibility of creating utility measures that are suitable for use in personal injury compensation has not been...
May 27, 2018
There is wide agreement that existing approaches to valuing noneconomic losses from personal injury lack coherence. “Health‐utility” measurement—an approach developed in health economics for valuing health outcomes in public health and medicine—holds considerable promise for bringing greater rationality and consistency to assessments of injury‐related noneconomic loss. However, the feasibility of creating utility measures that are suitable for use in personal injury compensation has not been...
