Blog Archives
Hylton on Deterrence & Aggregate Litigation
November 27, 2017
Keith N. Hylton (Boston University - School of Law) has posted Deterrence and Aggregate Litigation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: 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....
November 27, 2017
Keith N. Hylton (Boston University - School of Law) has posted Deterrence and Aggregate Litigation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: 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....
Occupations & Divorce Risk
November 26, 2017
From Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, writing for the Institute for Family Studies: A recent report on which occupations have the highest and lowest divorce rates intrigued us. The studyanalyzed data from the 2015 American Community Survey, and, based on the number of people in a particular occupation who had married at least once, calculated the percentage of people who divorced. We had fun discovering the likelihood of divorce for a variety of occupations: for example, librarians have about a 28% chance...
November 26, 2017
From Naomi Cahn and June Carbone, writing for the Institute for Family Studies: A recent report on which occupations have the highest and lowest divorce rates intrigued us. The studyanalyzed data from the 2015 American Community Survey, and, based on the number of people in a particular occupation who had married at least once, calculated the percentage of people who divorced. We had fun discovering the likelihood of divorce for a variety of occupations: for example, librarians have about a 28% chance...
John Grisham Takes on Sleazy Law Schools
November 26, 2017
John Grisham Takes on Sleazy Law Schools Controversies over questionable for-profit law schools are moving from news reports to novels—probably not a good development for legal education. In his latest novel, The Rooster Bar, John Grisham writes about students at the “Foggy Bottom Law School” who realize that they are being scammed. So they present themselves to the public as lawyers and start practicing law without a license. Complications ensue. Here is a review from USA Today.
November 26, 2017
John Grisham Takes on Sleazy Law Schools Controversies over questionable for-profit law schools are moving from news reports to novels—probably not a good development for legal education. In his latest novel, The Rooster Bar, John Grisham writes about students at the “Foggy Bottom Law School” who realize that they are being scammed. So they present themselves to the public as lawyers and start practicing law without a license. Complications ensue. Here is a review from USA Today.
2017 ABA Tech Survey Shows All-Time High iPhone Use by Attorneys
November 25, 2017
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — over 70% of all attorneys in the United States. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which conducts a survey every year to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. The 2017 report (edited by Joshua Poje) was just released, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers. No survey...
November 25, 2017
New survey results indicate that a record number of attorneys are using an iPhone in their law practice — over 70% of all attorneys in the United States. These numbers come from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, which conducts a survey every year to gauge the use of legal technology by attorneys in private practice in the United States. The 2017 report (edited by Joshua Poje) was just released, and as always, I was particularly interested in Volume VI, titled Mobile Lawyers. No survey...
Artificial Intelligence’s Winners and Losers
November 25, 2017
People, get ready. “We’ve crossed a critical threshold,” says Ken Sena, a Wells Fargo analyst focused on A.I. Artificial intelligence now has the programming strategies, processor power, and abundant data to transform many industries. Sena got Wells Fargo to build a machine learning system called Aiera to assist in his equity research. A superhuman Go program has been one of A.I.’s grand challenges, so DeepMind chose the ancient Chinese game as a test for its “neural network” software,...
November 25, 2017
People, get ready. “We’ve crossed a critical threshold,” says Ken Sena, a Wells Fargo analyst focused on A.I. Artificial intelligence now has the programming strategies, processor power, and abundant data to transform many industries. Sena got Wells Fargo to build a machine learning system called Aiera to assist in his equity research. A superhuman Go program has been one of A.I.’s grand challenges, so DeepMind chose the ancient Chinese game as a test for its “neural network” software,...
LARA – An AI Legal Assistant That Will Help Clients Find The Right Lawyer
November 24, 2017
https://medium.com/@Legal.io/meet-lara-your-legal-assistant-a579dac68cfThe use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in law practice is in its infancy. I received an email from Pieter Gunst, of Legal.io, who announced LARA, an AI legal assistant that can answer thousands of legal questions, direct consumer users to a lawyer who practices in the area, and is the beginning of a software system that hopes to be the place consumers will go to get competent answers and to solve legal problems. The interesting...
November 24, 2017
https://medium.com/@Legal.io/meet-lara-your-legal-assistant-a579dac68cfThe use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in law practice is in its infancy. I received an email from Pieter Gunst, of Legal.io, who announced LARA, an AI legal assistant that can answer thousands of legal questions, direct consumer users to a lawyer who practices in the area, and is the beginning of a software system that hopes to be the place consumers will go to get competent answers and to solve legal problems. The interesting...
Fourth Circuit Issues Opinion Creating Good Policy For Arbitration Law
November 24, 2017
In Goodwin v. Branch Banking & Trust Co, No. 17-1412 (4th Cir. Oct. 31, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision), the Fourth Circuit issued a brief opinion discussing an inappropriate tactic sometimes used in litigating the enforceability of an arbitration clause. Suppose a hypothetical arbitration clause with a consumer or employee contains 2 unconscionable, harsh, one-sided terms (e.g., all arbitration must take place in a distant state on the opposite side of the country; and the consumer...
November 24, 2017
In Goodwin v. Branch Banking & Trust Co, No. 17-1412 (4th Cir. Oct. 31, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision), the Fourth Circuit issued a brief opinion discussing an inappropriate tactic sometimes used in litigating the enforceability of an arbitration clause. Suppose a hypothetical arbitration clause with a consumer or employee contains 2 unconscionable, harsh, one-sided terms (e.g., all arbitration must take place in a distant state on the opposite side of the country; and the consumer...
T-Mobile Really Is The Fastest Network Now
November 23, 2017
T-Mobile expands LTE Advanced network to 920 markets. If you have a late model phone, it is likely that your phone is compatible with LTE Advanced, which is light years ahead of the current network speeds, and is now wherever you are likely to be. My 2 year old Nexus 6P, running the latest beta version of Android, 8.1, is compatible, and I now have the best OS and the fastest network on my phone. T-Mobile has an app that will tell you if your phone is compatible; but, the fact is that Verizon and AT&T...
November 23, 2017
T-Mobile expands LTE Advanced network to 920 markets. If you have a late model phone, it is likely that your phone is compatible with LTE Advanced, which is light years ahead of the current network speeds, and is now wherever you are likely to be. My 2 year old Nexus 6P, running the latest beta version of Android, 8.1, is compatible, and I now have the best OS and the fastest network on my phone. T-Mobile has an app that will tell you if your phone is compatible; but, the fact is that Verizon and AT&T...
San Antonio Bar Association rallies pro bono volunteers to assist Sutherland Springs victims
November 23, 2017
In a message to members, San Antonio Bar Association President Beth Watkins said the need for legal services for those affected by the recent mass shooting at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church will likely exceed what the legal community in that area can provide. The San Antonio Bar Association predicts there will be a need for pro bono legal services in the areas of family, probate, guardianship, employment, and real estate law as a result of the tragedy. SABA and its pro bono project,...
November 23, 2017
In a message to members, San Antonio Bar Association President Beth Watkins said the need for legal services for those affected by the recent mass shooting at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church will likely exceed what the legal community in that area can provide. The San Antonio Bar Association predicts there will be a need for pro bono legal services in the areas of family, probate, guardianship, employment, and real estate law as a result of the tragedy. SABA and its pro bono project,...
Good Cause Becomes Membership Drive: Senate Bill 539 Requires Additional Training for Family Mediators by January 1, 2018
November 22, 2017
Dear Fellow Mediators: The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV), who are the people that lobbied for the new requirement about 4 hours of Domestic Violence Training by January 1, 2018 for family law mediators, are going to provide it free from December 15, 2017, through December 31, 2017. Afterwards their training will cost $30 for a TCFV membership plus $25 each for the four training modules. Here is a copy of the email that TCFV sent out about the free training: [same as below] ************************ Good...
November 22, 2017
Dear Fellow Mediators: The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV), who are the people that lobbied for the new requirement about 4 hours of Domestic Violence Training by January 1, 2018 for family law mediators, are going to provide it free from December 15, 2017, through December 31, 2017. Afterwards their training will cost $30 for a TCFV membership plus $25 each for the four training modules. Here is a copy of the email that TCFV sent out about the free training: [same as below] ************************ Good...
