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Database of State Tort Law Reforms
February 2, 2019
Ronen Avraham (Tel Aviv/Texas) recently alerted me to an update of one of the more helpful resources around for those who study torts and tort reform. Specifically, the (DSTLR v.6.1) "updates the DSTLR (5th) and contains the most detailed, complete and comprehensive legal dataset of the most prevalent tort reforms in the United States between 1980 and 2018. The DSTLR has been downloaded more than 2700 times and has become the standard tool in empirical research of tort reform. The dataset records...
February 2, 2019
Ronen Avraham (Tel Aviv/Texas) recently alerted me to an update of one of the more helpful resources around for those who study torts and tort reform. Specifically, the (DSTLR v.6.1) "updates the DSTLR (5th) and contains the most detailed, complete and comprehensive legal dataset of the most prevalent tort reforms in the United States between 1980 and 2018. The DSTLR has been downloaded more than 2700 times and has become the standard tool in empirical research of tort reform. The dataset records...
An Amazonian Divorce
February 2, 2019
As the shock wave of the news expanded over the last couple weeks, it would have been hard to miss that Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has announced that him and his wife of twenty-five years were divorcing. The couple lived in Washington, a community property state, and with Amazon being founded during the marriage it could mean that MacKenzie would be entitled to half of the value of the massive company. Stocks, personal property, and other forms of Bezos's wealth would need to be accounted...
February 2, 2019
As the shock wave of the news expanded over the last couple weeks, it would have been hard to miss that Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has announced that him and his wife of twenty-five years were divorcing. The couple lived in Washington, a community property state, and with Amazon being founded during the marriage it could mean that MacKenzie would be entitled to half of the value of the massive company. Stocks, personal property, and other forms of Bezos's wealth would need to be accounted...
The Better Way to Forecast the Future
February 1, 2019
Crowdsourcing works so well, in fact, says Harvard Business School visiting associate professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne, that executives should adopt a similar approach when it comes to using probability forecasts of business-critical issues; for example, the likelihood that product demand will increase by a given percentage next quarter. “The whole notion of using crowds is very popular in many different fields,” says Grushka-Cockayne, whose research is on data science, forecasting, project...
February 1, 2019
Crowdsourcing works so well, in fact, says Harvard Business School visiting associate professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne, that executives should adopt a similar approach when it comes to using probability forecasts of business-critical issues; for example, the likelihood that product demand will increase by a given percentage next quarter. “The whole notion of using crowds is very popular in many different fields,” says Grushka-Cockayne, whose research is on data science, forecasting, project...
Marriott Won’t Require Data Breach Victims to Individually Arbitrate Claims
February 1, 2019
Late last year, hotel giant Marriott International disclosed a data breach that began in 2014 and affected approximately 500 million Marriott and Starwood Preferred guest accounts. A variety of hotel guest information including names, birth dates, passport numbers, encrypted credit card information, and other sensitive data was reportedly obtained by hackers. In response, Marriott has offered those guests affected by the data breach a free one-year subscription to fraud...
February 1, 2019
Late last year, hotel giant Marriott International disclosed a data breach that began in 2014 and affected approximately 500 million Marriott and Starwood Preferred guest accounts. A variety of hotel guest information including names, birth dates, passport numbers, encrypted credit card information, and other sensitive data was reportedly obtained by hackers. In response, Marriott has offered those guests affected by the data breach a free one-year subscription to fraud...
“Final-Offer Arbitration”: A Procedure to Save Time and Money?
January 31, 2019
This is an introduction to the so-called “Final Offer Arbitration” (FOA), sometimes also referred to as pendulum or baseball arbitration. FOA is a model of arbitration that originated in the late 1940s and consolidated in the 1970s in the USA to resolve labour disputes in the public sector and the baseball league, hence the name. FOA differentiates itself from conventional arbitration owing to the incentives it sparks in parties’ conduct to reach a mutually agreeable settlement, its celerity...
January 31, 2019
This is an introduction to the so-called “Final Offer Arbitration” (FOA), sometimes also referred to as pendulum or baseball arbitration. FOA is a model of arbitration that originated in the late 1940s and consolidated in the 1970s in the USA to resolve labour disputes in the public sector and the baseball league, hence the name. FOA differentiates itself from conventional arbitration owing to the incentives it sparks in parties’ conduct to reach a mutually agreeable settlement, its celerity...
SCOTUS to Hear Key Income Tax Issue for $120 Billion Trust Industry
January 31, 2019
The highest court of the country has granted certiorari to a tax case that has serious implications for states and trusts...
January 31, 2019
The highest court of the country has granted certiorari to a tax case that has serious implications for states and trusts...
Chen on Machine Learning & the Rule of Law
January 30, 2019
Daniel L. Chen (Directeur de Recherche, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse School of Economics, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse, France) has posted Machine Learning and the Rule of Law (Computational Analysis of Law, Santa Fe Institute Press, ed. M. Livermore and D. Rockmore, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Predictive judicial analytics holds the promise of increasing the fairness of law. Much empirical work...
January 30, 2019
Daniel L. Chen (Directeur de Recherche, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse School of Economics, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse Capitole, Toulouse, France) has posted Machine Learning and the Rule of Law (Computational Analysis of Law, Santa Fe Institute Press, ed. M. Livermore and D. Rockmore, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Predictive judicial analytics holds the promise of increasing the fairness of law. Much empirical work...
Westlaw Edge Gets New ‘Precedent Analytics’ Showing the Cases and Courts Judges Rely On
January 30, 2019
Now, Thomson Reuters is further enhancing its analytics offerings with the addition of Precedent Analytics, which it is rolling...
January 30, 2019
Now, Thomson Reuters is further enhancing its analytics offerings with the addition of Precedent Analytics, which it is rolling...
History tells us most VC backed legal tech companies will fail
January 29, 2019
The legal tech industry has seen a huge increase in venture capital investment. One billion dollars was invested last year and from the looks of it, we’re on pace to do it again. Venture capitalists are betting on growing valuation quickly, no matter the losses, and liquidating their investment by selling the company to another company or private equity firm. Very, very few will go public. That’s a good bet in some cases based on the inefficiencies in the delivery of legal...
January 29, 2019
The legal tech industry has seen a huge increase in venture capital investment. One billion dollars was invested last year and from the looks of it, we’re on pace to do it again. Venture capitalists are betting on growing valuation quickly, no matter the losses, and liquidating their investment by selling the company to another company or private equity firm. Very, very few will go public. That’s a good bet in some cases based on the inefficiencies in the delivery of legal...
New Mediator Self-Reflection Tool
January 29, 2019
The Supreme Court of Virginia has developed a wonderful new self-reflection form for mediators. While the Court developed this tool for their certified mediators as part of their re-certification process, it is a valuable tool for any mediator (just ignore the instructions about continuing mediator education credits). There is a lot of content, so if you are using this on your own you will probably want to pick and choose among the questions. This new tool coordinates with Virginia’s...
January 29, 2019
The Supreme Court of Virginia has developed a wonderful new self-reflection form for mediators. While the Court developed this tool for their certified mediators as part of their re-certification process, it is a valuable tool for any mediator (just ignore the instructions about continuing mediator education credits). There is a lot of content, so if you are using this on your own you will probably want to pick and choose among the questions. This new tool coordinates with Virginia’s...
