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Legaltech New York 2016 And My Invisibility Cloak
March 12, 2016
Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to Legaltech New York. This conference is hands down one of my favorite legal technology...
March 12, 2016
Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to Legaltech New York. This conference is hands down one of my favorite legal technology...
Humor Production and Perceptions of Psychological Health
March 12, 2016
Funny people — comedians, class clowns, and pranksters — often seem troubled. But are they? Though an argument can be made either way, we suggest that trying to be funny can cause people to seem psychologically unhealthy regardless of their actual psychological health. We derive our predictions from the benign violation theory of humor, which proposes amusement arises from the perception that something is wrong yet okay. Accordingly, acting non-normatively enhances humor as long as the behavior...
March 12, 2016
Funny people — comedians, class clowns, and pranksters — often seem troubled. But are they? Though an argument can be made either way, we suggest that trying to be funny can cause people to seem psychologically unhealthy regardless of their actual psychological health. We derive our predictions from the benign violation theory of humor, which proposes amusement arises from the perception that something is wrong yet okay. Accordingly, acting non-normatively enhances humor as long as the behavior...
Harvard Law Prof Says Technology Will Replace Some Lawyers – How Many
March 12, 2016
HLS Professor David Wilkins, Director of Harvard's Center for the Legal Profession, which studies the impact of globalization on the delivery of legal services, says that technology will "of course" replace the need to hire some lawyers. The only question is how large the impact will be. His remarks are included in an article entitled The Laws of Adaptation published in the fall edition of the Harvard Law Bulletin. Here's an excerpt: The warning bells have been ringing for at least two decades:...
March 12, 2016
HLS Professor David Wilkins, Director of Harvard's Center for the Legal Profession, which studies the impact of globalization on the delivery of legal services, says that technology will "of course" replace the need to hire some lawyers. The only question is how large the impact will be. His remarks are included in an article entitled The Laws of Adaptation published in the fall edition of the Harvard Law Bulletin. Here's an excerpt: The warning bells have been ringing for at least two decades:...
An Offer to Settle Does Not End the Case!
March 11, 2016
In November 2015, I discussed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision– Campbell Ewald Company v Gomez, 768 F. 3d 781 (9th Cir. 2014)- in which that court held that where Plaintiff rejects Defendant’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 68 Offer of Judgment offering plaintiff all of the relief he requests, the case is not moot. (blog) Plaintiff Gomez contended that Defendant violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, (47 U. S. C. §227(b) (1) (A) (iii) (2012)) by having one of its outside...
March 11, 2016
In November 2015, I discussed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision– Campbell Ewald Company v Gomez, 768 F. 3d 781 (9th Cir. 2014)- in which that court held that where Plaintiff rejects Defendant’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 68 Offer of Judgment offering plaintiff all of the relief he requests, the case is not moot. (blog) Plaintiff Gomez contended that Defendant violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, (47 U. S. C. §227(b) (1) (A) (iii) (2012)) by having one of its outside...
On Artificial Intelligence and Contract Law
March 11, 2016
Ian Kerr of the University of Ottawa's Centre for Law, Technology and society has an interesting post from last September on a topic of that has been of occasional discussion on this blog, and which I came across only recently. In "The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence and 'The Death of Contract,'" Kerr outlines some of the foreseeable challenges facing today's students of contract law due to disruptive technology: On the market today are a number of AI products that carry out contract review and analysis....
March 11, 2016
Ian Kerr of the University of Ottawa's Centre for Law, Technology and society has an interesting post from last September on a topic of that has been of occasional discussion on this blog, and which I came across only recently. In "The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence and 'The Death of Contract,'" Kerr outlines some of the foreseeable challenges facing today's students of contract law due to disruptive technology: On the market today are a number of AI products that carry out contract review and analysis....
Robert Rabin on Intangible Damages in American Tort Law
March 11, 2016
Professor Robert Rabin (Stanford) has posted to SSRN his article, Intangible Damages in American Tort Law: A Roadmap. Here is the abstract: This paper is meant to provide a succinct roadmap to the many pathways taken in providing recovery for intangible harm in tort. The paper was initially prepared for a comparative law conference, and in that setting, I assumed a lack of close familiarity with the historical origins and surprisingly broad expanse of recovery for intangible harm in American...
March 11, 2016
Professor Robert Rabin (Stanford) has posted to SSRN his article, Intangible Damages in American Tort Law: A Roadmap. Here is the abstract: This paper is meant to provide a succinct roadmap to the many pathways taken in providing recovery for intangible harm in tort. The paper was initially prepared for a comparative law conference, and in that setting, I assumed a lack of close familiarity with the historical origins and surprisingly broad expanse of recovery for intangible harm in American...
Human Memory Capacity is Ten Times More Than Previously Thought
March 10, 2016
The picture above shows a synapse between an axon (green) and dendrite (yellow). A human brain could hold as much information as the entire internet, a new study finds. Human memory capacity is in the petabyte range, researchers at the Salk Institute have now found. This is ten times larger than was previously thought. Professor Terry Sejnowski, the study’s first author, said: “This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience. We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle...
March 10, 2016
The picture above shows a synapse between an axon (green) and dendrite (yellow). A human brain could hold as much information as the entire internet, a new study finds. Human memory capacity is in the petabyte range, researchers at the Salk Institute have now found. This is ten times larger than was previously thought. Professor Terry Sejnowski, the study’s first author, said: “This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience. We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle...
Joanna Shepherd’s Empirical Survey of No-Injury Class Actions
March 10, 2016
Professor Joanna Shepherd (Emory) has posted to SSRN her article, An Empirical Survey of No-Injury Class Actions. Here is the abstract: This report empirically examines the allocation of settlements and awards in no-injury class actions among plaintiffs, attorneys, and cy pres funds. The results are based on my study of 432 no-injury class action settlements and trial awards from 2005-2015. The study finds that, on average, 60 percent of the total monetary award paid by the defendants was allocated...
March 10, 2016
Professor Joanna Shepherd (Emory) has posted to SSRN her article, An Empirical Survey of No-Injury Class Actions. Here is the abstract: This report empirically examines the allocation of settlements and awards in no-injury class actions among plaintiffs, attorneys, and cy pres funds. The results are based on my study of 432 no-injury class action settlements and trial awards from 2005-2015. The study finds that, on average, 60 percent of the total monetary award paid by the defendants was allocated...
Article on Predispute Arbitration Agreements
March 10, 2016
Mary F. Radford (Professor of Law, Georgia State University School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Predispute Arbitration Agreements Between Trustees and Financial Service: Are Beneficiaries Bound?, 40 ACTEC J. 273 (2014). Provided below is an excerpt from the article: Part I of this article contains a brief description of arbitration, a discussion of the use of arbitration in securities lawsuits (that is, suits against brokerage firms and investment advisers), and an examination...
March 10, 2016
Mary F. Radford (Professor of Law, Georgia State University School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Predispute Arbitration Agreements Between Trustees and Financial Service: Are Beneficiaries Bound?, 40 ACTEC J. 273 (2014). Provided below is an excerpt from the article: Part I of this article contains a brief description of arbitration, a discussion of the use of arbitration in securities lawsuits (that is, suits against brokerage firms and investment advisers), and an examination...
The Fastest Way To Learn
March 9, 2016
Practice makes perfect: One of those clichés that gets endlessly trotted out, told to children at the piano and point guards shooting from behind the arc. It applies to multiplication tables and stickshifts, sex and writing. And the line is true, even if it overpromises. Perfection might be impossible, but practice is the only way to get close. Unfortunately, the cliche is limited by its imprecision. What kind of practice makes perfect? And what aspects of practice are most valuable? Is it the repetition?...
March 9, 2016
Practice makes perfect: One of those clichés that gets endlessly trotted out, told to children at the piano and point guards shooting from behind the arc. It applies to multiplication tables and stickshifts, sex and writing. And the line is true, even if it overpromises. Perfection might be impossible, but practice is the only way to get close. Unfortunately, the cliche is limited by its imprecision. What kind of practice makes perfect? And what aspects of practice are most valuable? Is it the repetition?...
