Blog Archives
Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice
November 1, 2015
Over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult to apply for a credit card, use a cellphone, get cable or Internet service, or shop online without agreeing to private arbitration. The same applies to getting a job, renting a car or placing a relative in a nursing home. Among the class actions thrown out because of the clauses was one brought by Time Warner customers over charges they said mysteriously appeared on their bills and another against a travel booking website accused of conspiring...
November 1, 2015
Over the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult to apply for a credit card, use a cellphone, get cable or Internet service, or shop online without agreeing to private arbitration. The same applies to getting a job, renting a car or placing a relative in a nursing home. Among the class actions thrown out because of the clauses was one brought by Time Warner customers over charges they said mysteriously appeared on their bills and another against a travel booking website accused of conspiring...
Should You Be Allowed to Invest in a Lawsuit?
November 1, 2015
In recent years, investors have started buying shares in other people’s litigation proceedings. Are they warping the legal system in the process? This new form of lawsuit funding is called litigation finance. It lies at the crossroads of two Anglo-American tendencies. The first is our litigious side, in which we celebrate our equality before the law by dragging those who have wronged us before a judge. The second is our ingenious mercantilism, as demonstrated by our penchant for turning everything...
November 1, 2015
In recent years, investors have started buying shares in other people’s litigation proceedings. Are they warping the legal system in the process? This new form of lawsuit funding is called litigation finance. It lies at the crossroads of two Anglo-American tendencies. The first is our litigious side, in which we celebrate our equality before the law by dragging those who have wronged us before a judge. The second is our ingenious mercantilism, as demonstrated by our penchant for turning everything...
Google Street View Adds Virtual Reality Support With Cardboard
October 31, 2015
If you have a Google Cardboard compatible headset lying around, Street View is about to get a lot more fun. Google today announced support for Cardboard in its mobile Street View apps for Android and iOS. The update will allow you to explore locations in 360 degrees (although not quite 3D, as that would require a different camera set up). Street View is one of the most obvious applications for Cardboard, given it’s already constructed in 360 degrees; it’s somewhat surprising Street View...
October 31, 2015
If you have a Google Cardboard compatible headset lying around, Street View is about to get a lot more fun. Google today announced support for Cardboard in its mobile Street View apps for Android and iOS. The update will allow you to explore locations in 360 degrees (although not quite 3D, as that would require a different camera set up). Street View is one of the most obvious applications for Cardboard, given it’s already constructed in 360 degrees; it’s somewhat surprising Street View...
Fixed, The App That Fixes Your Parking Tickets, Gets Blocked
October 31, 2015
Fixed, a mobile app that fights parking tickets and other traffic citations on users’ behalf, has had its parking ticket operations blocked in three of its top cities, San Francisco, Oakland and L.A. after the cities increased the measures they were taking to block Fixed from accessing their parking ticket websites. The company confirms it has suspended parking ticket operations in all three cities as of three weeks ago – a move impacting around 100,000 users. Going forward, Fixed will focus...
October 31, 2015
Fixed, a mobile app that fights parking tickets and other traffic citations on users’ behalf, has had its parking ticket operations blocked in three of its top cities, San Francisco, Oakland and L.A. after the cities increased the measures they were taking to block Fixed from accessing their parking ticket websites. The company confirms it has suspended parking ticket operations in all three cities as of three weeks ago – a move impacting around 100,000 users. Going forward, Fixed will focus...
How Improving Decision-Making and Mindfulness Can Improve Legal Ethics and Professionalism
October 31, 2015
Lawyers who behave unethically and unprofessionally do so for various reasons, ranging from intention to carelessness. Lawyer misconduct can also result from decision-making flaws. Psychologist Chip Heath and his brother Dan Heath, in their best-selling book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, suggest a process to improve people’s decision-making. They introduce the acronym WRAP as the mnemonic for these decision-making heuristics: (1) Widen your options, (2) Reality-test...
October 31, 2015
Lawyers who behave unethically and unprofessionally do so for various reasons, ranging from intention to carelessness. Lawyer misconduct can also result from decision-making flaws. Psychologist Chip Heath and his brother Dan Heath, in their best-selling book, Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions in Life and Work, suggest a process to improve people’s decision-making. They introduce the acronym WRAP as the mnemonic for these decision-making heuristics: (1) Widen your options, (2) Reality-test...
Future of Computing: Social Robots Help With Personal Goals
October 30, 2015
Entrepreneur and MIT scientist Cynthia Breazeal says the future of computing will include robots that can elicit emotional responses from humans — responses that could help improve their lives and help achieve personal goals. Consider two examples, Breazeal said at marketing and technology conference FutureM this past week. In one recent study, a robot named Autumn helped users not only lose weight but also keep the weight off. "These are machines that can help you be able to transform yourself...
October 30, 2015
Entrepreneur and MIT scientist Cynthia Breazeal says the future of computing will include robots that can elicit emotional responses from humans — responses that could help improve their lives and help achieve personal goals. Consider two examples, Breazeal said at marketing and technology conference FutureM this past week. In one recent study, a robot named Autumn helped users not only lose weight but also keep the weight off. "These are machines that can help you be able to transform yourself...
Formal Elements of Contract and Fiduciary Law
October 30, 2015
Contract law, with its history in the dual systems of law and equity, has resources that allow courts to announce determinate, seemingly absolute, rules but make exceptions at the enforcement stage when the outcome of the rules seems particularly harsh. For better or worse, fiduciary law does not support a comparable type of compromise between determinate rules and equitable exceptions.
October 30, 2015
Contract law, with its history in the dual systems of law and equity, has resources that allow courts to announce determinate, seemingly absolute, rules but make exceptions at the enforcement stage when the outcome of the rules seems particularly harsh. For better or worse, fiduciary law does not support a comparable type of compromise between determinate rules and equitable exceptions.
Preparing An Effective Pre-Mediation Memo
October 30, 2015
How do you prepare an excellent Mediation Brief? There’s some controversy: should it look like a legal brief, should it provide evidence as Exhibits, should it be exchanged or confidential, should it reveal weaknesses as well as strengths, how long or how brief? You don't need to agonize about the fine points if you follow these suggestions: First of all, let’s stop thinking of the Mediation Brief as a legal pleading or motion. If we think of it as a “Memo to Mediator” submitted in advance...
October 30, 2015
How do you prepare an excellent Mediation Brief? There’s some controversy: should it look like a legal brief, should it provide evidence as Exhibits, should it be exchanged or confidential, should it reveal weaknesses as well as strengths, how long or how brief? You don't need to agonize about the fine points if you follow these suggestions: First of all, let’s stop thinking of the Mediation Brief as a legal pleading or motion. If we think of it as a “Memo to Mediator” submitted in advance...
Unquantified Benefits and Bayesian Cost-Benefit Analysis
October 29, 2015
As the last act of its 2014-2015 Term, the Supreme Court struck down a major EPA regulation limiting mercury emissions from electrical power plants. The formal legal reason was EPA’s failure to consider the costs of regulating mercury before deciding that it must be regulated. But the costs of the regulation — $9.6 billion — would not have attracted such attention if they had not seemed so disproportionate to the regulatory benefits. The only mercury-related benefits that EPA could measure...
October 29, 2015
As the last act of its 2014-2015 Term, the Supreme Court struck down a major EPA regulation limiting mercury emissions from electrical power plants. The formal legal reason was EPA’s failure to consider the costs of regulating mercury before deciding that it must be regulated. But the costs of the regulation — $9.6 billion — would not have attracted such attention if they had not seemed so disproportionate to the regulatory benefits. The only mercury-related benefits that EPA could measure...
Unpacking the Mediator’s Opening Statement
October 29, 2015
Like a good Top 40 song from the days when Kasey Kasem counted them down every Sunday morning, a Mediator’s opening statement of no more than three to four minutes is more likely to become a hit. We Mediators pack tons of valuable information into our brief opening statements. Here is an unfiltered Mediator-to-Participant guide to assist you in understanding some of the more important themes frequently conveyed by Mediators in our opening statements. “Our mission today is to ‘get to the printer’...
October 29, 2015
Like a good Top 40 song from the days when Kasey Kasem counted them down every Sunday morning, a Mediator’s opening statement of no more than three to four minutes is more likely to become a hit. We Mediators pack tons of valuable information into our brief opening statements. Here is an unfiltered Mediator-to-Participant guide to assist you in understanding some of the more important themes frequently conveyed by Mediators in our opening statements. “Our mission today is to ‘get to the printer’...
