Blog Archives
Shammas & Pressman on the Constitutionality of Zoom Jury Trials
August 13, 2020
Michael Shammas (New York University School of Law) & Michael Pressman (New York University School of Law) have posted Advocacy through the Computer Screen: The Permissibility & Constitutionality of Jury Trial by Video Conference on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The coronavirus pandemic has uprooted life as we know it. No institution is immune. As a result of the crisis, trials in every state (jury and bench, criminal and civil) have been continued until later dates. But must...
August 13, 2020
Michael Shammas (New York University School of Law) & Michael Pressman (New York University School of Law) have posted Advocacy through the Computer Screen: The Permissibility & Constitutionality of Jury Trial by Video Conference on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The coronavirus pandemic has uprooted life as we know it. No institution is immune. As a result of the crisis, trials in every state (jury and bench, criminal and civil) have been continued until later dates. But must...
Virtual Criminal Jury Trial Getting Texas Test—iPads Included
August 12, 2020
An Austin, Texas, court will begin what it says is the first U.S. virtual criminal jury trial on Tuesday, a closely watched experiment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that’s requiring creative solutions. Potential jurors who lack their own hardware will be provided court-issued iPads. The six jurors selected to serve in the misdemeanor traffic case will hear evidence in one room on Zoom and the public can watch on YouTube. Jurors will deliberate in a separate virtual room. Court...
August 12, 2020
An Austin, Texas, court will begin what it says is the first U.S. virtual criminal jury trial on Tuesday, a closely watched experiment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that’s requiring creative solutions. Potential jurors who lack their own hardware will be provided court-issued iPads. The six jurors selected to serve in the misdemeanor traffic case will hear evidence in one room on Zoom and the public can watch on YouTube. Jurors will deliberate in a separate virtual room. Court...
Overconfidence Can Be Transmitted From Person To Person
August 11, 2020
There will always be some people within a group who are more confident than others. But some groups as a whole tend towards modesty — as with the !Kung hunters of the Kalahari Desert, for example, who deliberately downplay their own achievements and efforts. However, the opposite can also occur — and widespread overconfidence can of course become a problem, as with the US energy company Enron, whose “culture of arrogance” ultimately led to its downfall. These two examples...
August 11, 2020
There will always be some people within a group who are more confident than others. But some groups as a whole tend towards modesty — as with the !Kung hunters of the Kalahari Desert, for example, who deliberately downplay their own achievements and efforts. However, the opposite can also occur — and widespread overconfidence can of course become a problem, as with the US energy company Enron, whose “culture of arrogance” ultimately led to its downfall. These two examples...
What is an Appropriate Measure of Litigation? Quantification, Qualification and Differentiation of Dispute Resolution
August 10, 2020
This article reviews the claims about rates of litigation in the United States, as either “too much” or “too little” (e.g. “The Vanishing Trial”). While we need to understand aggregate litigation rates to assess access to justice, it may be more important to understand litigation rates in the context of differentiated case types. Litigation, in some cases, produces too “brittle” (binary) or costly outcomes, which is what led to the American “A” (alternative/appropriate) Dispute...
August 10, 2020
This article reviews the claims about rates of litigation in the United States, as either “too much” or “too little” (e.g. “The Vanishing Trial”). While we need to understand aggregate litigation rates to assess access to justice, it may be more important to understand litigation rates in the context of differentiated case types. Litigation, in some cases, produces too “brittle” (binary) or costly outcomes, which is what led to the American “A” (alternative/appropriate) Dispute...
Inazu on Reasonableness
August 9, 2020
John D. Inazu (Washington University in St. Louis - School of Law) has posted Beyond Unreasonable (Nebraska Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The concept of “reasonableness” permeates the law: the “reasonable person” determines the outcome of torts and contracts disputes, the criminal burden of proof requires factfinders to conclude “beyond a reasonable doubt;” claims of self-defense succeed or fail on reasonableness determinations But as any first-year...
August 9, 2020
John D. Inazu (Washington University in St. Louis - School of Law) has posted Beyond Unreasonable (Nebraska Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The concept of “reasonableness” permeates the law: the “reasonable person” determines the outcome of torts and contracts disputes, the criminal burden of proof requires factfinders to conclude “beyond a reasonable doubt;” claims of self-defense succeed or fail on reasonableness determinations But as any first-year...
Find Legal Authority For Any Text On The Web With Chrome Extension from ROSS
August 9, 2020
The legal research company ROSS Intelligence today introduced an extension for the Chrome web browser that lets you highlight text anywhere online and search for related legal authority. From any web page, email or embedded PDF, highlight the text you want to research, right click, and select the option “find similar language.” That runs a search on ROSS that retrieves cases related to the text.
August 9, 2020
The legal research company ROSS Intelligence today introduced an extension for the Chrome web browser that lets you highlight text anywhere online and search for related legal authority. From any web page, email or embedded PDF, highlight the text you want to research, right click, and select the option “find similar language.” That runs a search on ROSS that retrieves cases related to the text.
Court: PACER Fees Should Only be Used to Pay for PACER
August 8, 2020
Litigators and researchers all use PACER to access Federal Court documents. These documents are typically stored as electronic PDF documents and PACER charges 10¢ per page. That amount is relatively small, but adds up very quickly once you see how many pages are found in a single docket. The cost is particularly prohibitive for public access — those of us who are monitoring court activity but don’t have a financial interest in the case itself. In addition, it is prohibitive to the public-interest...
August 8, 2020
Litigators and researchers all use PACER to access Federal Court documents. These documents are typically stored as electronic PDF documents and PACER charges 10¢ per page. That amount is relatively small, but adds up very quickly once you see how many pages are found in a single docket. The cost is particularly prohibitive for public access — those of us who are monitoring court activity but don’t have a financial interest in the case itself. In addition, it is prohibitive to the public-interest...
International Commercial Courts in the United States and Australia: Possible, Probable, Preferable?
August 7, 2020
S.I. Strong, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, has published “International Commercial Courts in the United States and Australia: Possible, Probable, Preferable?,” AJIL Unbound (Forthcoming 2021); Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 20/37. The abstract states: As worldwide interest in international commercial courts grows, questions arise as to whether individual nations can or should seek to compete in the “litigation market”...
August 7, 2020
S.I. Strong, Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Law School, has published “International Commercial Courts in the United States and Australia: Possible, Probable, Preferable?,” AJIL Unbound (Forthcoming 2021); Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 20/37. The abstract states: As worldwide interest in international commercial courts grows, questions arise as to whether individual nations can or should seek to compete in the “litigation market”...
Article on Waking the Dead: An Empirical Analysis of Revival of Wills
August 6, 2020
Adam J. Hirsch recently published an article entitled, Waking the Dead: An Empirical Analysis of Revival of Wills, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2020). Provided below is the abstract to the Article. The problem of revival arises when a testator executes a first will, subsequently executes a second will that functions to revoke the first one by subsequent executed writing, and then later revokes the second will by act. Does this sequence of events reinstate the first will (“revival”)...
August 6, 2020
Adam J. Hirsch recently published an article entitled, Waking the Dead: An Empirical Analysis of Revival of Wills, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2020). Provided below is the abstract to the Article. The problem of revival arises when a testator executes a first will, subsequently executes a second will that functions to revoke the first one by subsequent executed writing, and then later revokes the second will by act. Does this sequence of events reinstate the first will (“revival”)...
Far and Binding: How Austin, San Antonio Courts Are Gearing for Fully Remote Jury Trials
August 5, 2020
Courts in Austin and San Antonio will test fully virtual jury trials this month, becoming perhaps the first in the world to use Zoom for a jury trial because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be closely followed Aug. 19 by a weeklong civil jury trial over Zoom in 57th Civil District Judge Antonia “Toni” Arteaga’s courtroom in San Antonio. Arteaga said she would love to have in-person jury trials but had to recognize where the community is at in terms of the coronavirus outbreak. “I...
August 5, 2020
Courts in Austin and San Antonio will test fully virtual jury trials this month, becoming perhaps the first in the world to use Zoom for a jury trial because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be closely followed Aug. 19 by a weeklong civil jury trial over Zoom in 57th Civil District Judge Antonia “Toni” Arteaga’s courtroom in San Antonio. Arteaga said she would love to have in-person jury trials but had to recognize where the community is at in terms of the coronavirus outbreak. “I...
