US Legal System Exam #2

Civil Justice is who against who?

Chamber of Commerce vs Trial Lawyers

Plaintiff Lawyers and companies are on the same side or the opposing?

opposing side

What do lawyers and companies try to do?

both try to influence who is put into government (judges)

Torts

are personal injury cases/ harm

Where does Tort Law come from

Judges

Wind fall payment

got more money then you deserve

Punitive reward

or "punitive damages" are monetary awards, awarded in addition to compensatory damages, that are intended to punish a defendant for egregious or malicious conduct and deter similar behavior in the future. 

3 things to understand

• understand how civil justice works

• reforms and problems with civil justice

• what are the alternatives

What is civil justice

anything that is not criminal

• it attempts to determine whether an offender or a third party is liable for the injuries sustained as a result of the crime.

What makes it Criminal Law

• brought by the government (state vs. ) (could also happen in civil law but less common there)

• government prosecution (could also happen in civil law but less common there)

• always has a defendant (could also happen in civil law but less common there)

• can send to jail (cannot do this in civil)

Who is civil justice between?

individuals vs individuals; individuals vs corporations; corporations vs corporations

Civil Law covers what type of cases

personal disputes (property, real estate, custody, divorce, copy write, immigration, traffic violation, contract law, etc)

Contingency Fees

(only done for civil law)

• a sum of money that a lawyer receives as a fee only if the case is won.

Alternatives to Civil law

workers compensations

Examples of Tort cases

car accident, battery, assault, libel, product, etc

Who pays for the lawyer?

English rule loser pays, American rule everyone pays their own lawyer

Is there adversarial legalism within civil justice

Yes (ex. Alabama Prison Reform)

What are the two problems with Civil Justice?

Time and Money

Disputing Pyramid

If your insurance drops you after you’ve been injured and they are suppose to pay you can…

sue for breach of contract

Steps in Legal Case (6 steps)

1. File a complaint (the plaintiff files it)

   • legal cause of action

2. served on defendant

3. Defendant files an answer (failure to submit a defense means you lose automatically)

4. Motion to dismiss (must prove its work being in court/need to show proof)

5. pre-trial discovery → interrogations, request for documents, affidavits, depositions

6. summary judgement

Brack Duckler example

• Gilmore v. Columbia Falls Aluminum Company

• The corporate owner of Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), sold hthe company to Brack Ducker for $1, plus $3 million for unsold inventory.

• As apart of this deal, the parties agreed to give the workers 50% of any future annual profit.

• Later on Ducker cut this deal and brought it down to 15% with promise of 50% in the future

• The workers agreed

• They never went back to the 50% and eventually sued and won

• This is an example of a True Positive Case

• Its a good example of American Adversarial Legalism and the strength of class action lawsuits.

• Compensatory damages— basically the opposite of punitive damages with the aim to reimburse the plaintiff for their losses (medical bills, property damage, etc.)

where do you file complaint (Hint: this can show decentralization of government)

look for the courthouse/judge where you’d have the best bet to win

In order for the defense to win you need to prove …

without a shadow of doubt

Valid Legal Claim Chart

• think of the results like a covid test

  • false positive = wrongful conviction

  • false negative = the guilty get to walk free

To win a case which side is more…

believable

What does the symbol pie stand for

plantiff

what does the symbol of a triangle stand for

defendant

What are the Key purposes of a valid legal claim

• compensation

• deterrence (promote safety)

Duty of Care

how much are we meant to value other safety and how much is it our responsibility

• prove this was breached or negligence

  • injury (must have a proven injury)

  • causation (the connection between injury and negligence)

  • damages (how much the injury is worth)

    • compensating damages

      • financial

      • pain and suffering

    • punitive damages (must prove more than negligence)

negligence

when duty of care is breached

Johnson v. Johnson

(under influence) (extortive litigation)

• After Seward Johnson died his will stated that the majority of his estate would go to his third wife

• his will left nothing to his 6 kids

• Th kids challenged the validity of the will and since the wife didn’t have access to the funds yet she lost

• Basia (the wife) agreed to settle and gave about $40 million to the Johnson children and paid their legal fees

Dixie Flag case (pg 136)

(extortive education) (false positive) - Kegan example

vendectan (pg 133-134)

What does it mean to settle

• it doesn’t mean that you are admitting fault (false positive)

How predictable are jury verdicts?

extremely unpredictable

Class action

multiple plaintiffs sue same defendant

Common law

law passed down; newer judges follow older judges verdict (common sense)

in order to make a better judgement with the common law development of tort law, you’d need what 4 factors

• case facts

• social background facts

• rule → duty of care (to whom0

  • injury

  • damages

• values

The 4 factors harmonize for reasoning

Case decision 2 factors

• Facts (used for later cases)

• rule

Same or Different Rule (Reason in Law (pg 40))

Cherry Tree Case (pg 63 reason in law)

Pit and the Alley

Who is responsible for what injury

Diving Board Case

Barge Case

Tarasoff Case

• The psychiatrist knew that Tatiana was in danger and called the police but never informed her nor her family of her danger

• Tatiana was murdered by her brothers roommate, who was known to be planning to hurt her

• The staff could have easily informed her however they did not and Tatiana’s parents sued the school

• Reasoning by example played a major role in this case.

• the parents argued that the school had duty of care to protect their daughter

• important to consider that a “defendant owes a duty of care to all persons who are foreseeable endangered by his conduct with respect to all risks which make the conduct unreasonably dangerous.”

Saldono Case

Aug 1977: In Happy Jack’s Saloon, Darrell Soldano was threatened. A patron ran into a nearby Circle Inn to ask the bartender to call 911, but they refused to call or even to allow the patron to call. The confrontation escalated and resulted in Soldano being shot dead. A lawsuit sought damages for Soldano’s son from the Circle Inn, arguing that if the bartender called 911, Soldano wouldn’t have been shot. The Circle Inn argued that it was not the bartender’s responsibility to call 911. Because the law on the situation was unclear, judges had to decide based on the relationship between Soldano and the bartender

• Decided according to California Common law, which requires people to treat strangers with care expected of a “reasonable and prudent person”

• Background facts: the rising crime problems and the significance of telephones for stopping crimes

Negotiation Box

McDonald’s Coffee Case

• Stella Liebeck was burned by McDonald coffee due to its extreme heat.

• She was injured so badly and needed skin graph

• Her family sent McDonalds a letter asking for money to cover her medical bills. They offered $800 for $10,000 worth of damages.

• McDonalds had over 700 previous complaints about hot beverages

• Jury believed 20% was Stella’s fault and 80% was McDonalds

• Leibeck won $160,000 from the case and 2.7 million in punitive damages

• Judges reduced the punitive damages to $480,000

• The media poorly represented the case and vilified Liebeck

Colin Nebraska Case

• caps on damages

• This was a case of malpractice

• Colin suffered severe brain damage from lack of oxygen

• the doctor had been sued twice before for malpractice

• the family needed for $6 million to take care of Colin for the rest of his life

• won $5.6 million but due to caps on damages it was reduced to $1.4 million after the case

• The judge said it was unconstitutional to caps so the Doctor appealed and the Nebraska Supreme Court said it was constitutional, reducing the money that Colin’s family would be rewarded.

Caps on Damages

a form tort reform that limits how much money you can earn from a trial.

Oliver Diaz Case

• interest groups worked against Diaz because he was deemed not business enough

• The US Chambers of Commerce is not apart of the government and is rather made up of large businesses

• The Chamber of Commerce puts money into campaigns they agree with

• the election between Diaz and the other candidate was a runoff and Diaz had to get a loan

• Diaz won the case and then the US Chamber of Commerce work to indict him

• Diaz was acquitted from all crimes and re-indicted for tax evasion and then acquitted again

• He spent three years of his time off the bench because of the case and his reputation was ruined.

• Diaz lost in the 2008 election against the US Chamber of Commerce campaign

What does Civil Court do?

hold those accountable

what is the only place you can bring a large business to judgement/ hold them accountable

the Supreme Court

Tort reform

is to limit the way people can go to court (limit rights)

• business support this

who makes up the American Tort Reform Association

tons of businesses

What are the three types of caps on damages?

Punitive, non economic, and economic damages

punitive damages

damages exceeding simple compensation and awarded to punish the defendant.

Non-economic damages

compensation for subjective, non-monetary losses like pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, distinct from economic damages which are tangible financial losses. 

Economic damages

tangible, quantifiable financial losses a person incurs due to an injury or harm, such as medical expenses, lost wages, and property damage. 

Mandatory Arbitration

clauses that say you can’t go to court and have to solve disputes through arbitration.