the actual final set cause im stupid

Ford car case

Ford pinto had the gas tank too close to the axle leading to explosions during rear ends.

$137M to fix, $49.5M in benefits (savings on burn deaths + injuries)

Since costs outweighed benefits, they didn’t do anything to change the cars. However, this doesn’t consider goodwill and damage to reputation. Came out in jury trial later, awarded $127M.

Distributive Justice

who pays taxes? should we take money from rich people to get first generation students through school? this policy says yes

normative inquiry

asking what should be, not what is

regressive tax policies

Washington taxes affect poor people relatively more than rich people, since it’s easier for rich people to afford to pay sales taxes.

ethical relativism

The idea that moral standards are not standard but dependent on the culture and environment that someone was raised in.

jail/prison

1.9M people in prison, number one in the world in people in jail/prison per capita

Jail: local for counties and cities, holds pretrial detainees and anyone imprisoned for less than a year. Run by sheriffs.

Prison: State/Federal, holds convicted individuals who are servings more than 1 year.

95% of crimes are prosecuted at the state level while 5% are prosecuted at the federal level

criminal statutes

legislatures create them, must clearly describe forbidden conduct in order to establish due process.

Statutes of Limitations

Murder - none

felonies - 3 years

misdemeanors - 1 to 2 years

theft by deception - 7 years

elements of a crime

actus reas (prohibited act) + mens rea (specific state of mind, intentional vs. negligent)

reckless endagerment

gross misdemeanor that occurs when someone’s actions create a risk of serious physical injury

diminished capacity

the idea that someone’s capacity was diminished due to an external factor

scienter

acting with knowledge that the act is wrong, must be proven for some crimes. for example, can’t get mad at someone for delivering an illegal package if they didn’t know what the package was.

Danny Valentine case

danny valentine got drunk stabbed his girlfriend, called 911 for her and left, drove to his side girl’s place and swallowed a bunch of meds to try and commit suicide.

argues dimished capacity but that argument didn’t work because he clearly displayed the fine motor skills to call 911, operate his vehicle, and felt guilty enough to swallow meds to kill himself.

motive

different from act and mental state, rarely included in criminal statutes except for hate crimes and some others.

strict liability crimes

crimes where mens rea doesn’t need to be proven, the act itself holds u liable

for example - a tiger you own bites someone, you’re liable

Statutory Rape

strict liability crime, when an adult has sex with a minor

not a defense to not know the age, it is a defense to reasonably believe the victim was of age based on declarations by the victim

Incomplete Crimes

attempted, punished at 75% of completed crimes

Aaron lord Case

Aaron Lord and Andre Anthony were burglars in Tacoma, but all of aaron’s loot got stolen, so he hired someone to kill andre and get the money back. While talking to the guy who was gonna kill him, aaron’s conversation was overheard by a domino’s worker and he reported it to the cops who stopped the murder from happening.

Felony

potentially punishable by more than a year

Capital Crime

eligible for death penalty

Misdemeanor

less than a year of jail time

Prosecutorial Discretion

prosecutor does not have to file charges and can choose which charges to file, reduce charges, or dismiss them

5th amendment

right to not say anything that might incriminate you, doesn’t apply to companies

Who may commit a crime?

Persons, corporations and businesses, usually children 8-12 are exempt unless the state can prove they know what they did

Who gets juvie?

12 to 18 year olds, however if you’re 16 the court can decline hearings and for serious violent crimes they can be sent to adult jail

Massachusetts Test

to prosecute a business

1. an individual committed a criminal offense

2. at the time a crime was committed the person was engaged in business activity

3. individual was vested with the authority to act for the business

Arraignment

When a person is told in court what the charges are. another part of due process

Plea bargain

95%+ of criminal cases resolved by way of a plea bargain

Hertz Case

Hertz operates shuttles to rental car facility from airport, employed lots of somali muslim refugees who needed prayer time every day. This was fine when only a few of them were employed but eventually they had too many and could no longer offer that time to everyone since they needed shuttles to run.

Stopped offering prayer time due to undue influence, case went to trial and Hertz won.

Why is it bad to ask what you were paid before?

Perpetuates discrimination in wages if the employee was facing discrimination from their former employer.

In 2019, it became illegal to ask about former wages in Washington.

Religious accomodations

must be offered to employees unless they pose undue hardship to employers

Federal Law Applies to

Companies with over 15 employees

Hostile Environment test

1. verbal or physical?

2. Frequency

3. hostile or patently offensive

4. coworker or supervisor

5. others participating?

6. conduct directed at more than one person

How to mitigate sexual harassment claims

1. Set a clear standard against sexual harassment in the workplace (meeting with HR, zero tolerance contract)

2. complaint system with fast followups

Retaliation Claim

when an employee files a discrimination suit but HR’s solution is impossible to accomodate for the employee, meaning they hope the employee will quit rather than find a real solution.

more retaliation claims than sexual harassment claims.

Retaliation lawsuit

1. employee engaged in protected conduct

2. subject to adverse employment action

3. causal connection between protected conduct and adverse action

Age Discrimination

Age discrimination only applies to older people.

ADA

have to accomodate disabilites unless they pose undue hardship.

Virtue Ethics

The ideal way to act, what is expected of the perfect person

Duty Based Ethics

The idea that following the rules is ethical, regardless of results of your actions.

Consequentialism

Judging whether you have acted ethically by examining the outcomes of your actions (utilitarianism)

Categorical Imperative

When looking at an ethical issue, only act in a way that you are willing to have become a universal law. Kant.

Procedural Justice

a type of duty based ethics that prioritizes the preservation of procedures, laws, and systems regardless of the end result.

Disclosure Rule

When thinking about whether or not something is ethical, think about what would happen if it ended up on the front page of the New York Times

Applying utilitarianism

1. know whos affected

2. cost benefit analysis

3. assessment of positives

4. decision to pursue greatest good for greatest number

duty of loyalty

employees must act only to the benefit of their employer (like fiduciary duty)

employee safety

employees have a right to a safe working environment, federally directed by OSHA, which is a regulatory agency.

Workers comp

when employees are injured via negligence, they file a claim with the state for compensation. the money for this comes from taxes that the state charges various employers, amount of tax dependent on hazards of the job.

workers comp test

1. injury

2. result of accident at work

3. arose out of employment

Duty to Warn of Layoffs

Companies with more than 100 employees must provide 60 day advance notice of layoff

no constitutional right for employees to

fringe benefits

health care

sick leave

Family and Medical Leave Act

companies with more than 50 employees + government employers must offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave

Employee Privacy Rights

Essentially none, employer is allowed to monitor everything that you do

Drug Use

Marijuana still illegal under federal law, so employers working with federal contracts are free to fire employees using marijuana

some states have specific statutes preventing people from firing people for using weed

Drug Testing in the Workplace

4th amendment applies for gov employees (can only drug test under reasonable suspicion)

4th amendment does not apply for private companies, they can drug test whenever, in accordance with state + local laws

Non Compete

enforceable under certain circumstances, especially when IP or trade secrets are involved with high level employees

in Washington, if you are earning less than $120,000 non compete agreements are not enforceable

California doesn’t allow non compete agreements at all

Kroger and Albertsons

biggest grocery merger in history, went to state court and federal court, prohibited in both via the clayton act to prevent a monopoly forming.

The rule of reason was used in this case rather than the per se rule.

relevant market

product market + geographic market

Microsoft Contractor stock options case

Microsoft hired tons of people as either contractors or FTEs, all working together under the same conditions to update Windows operating system.

However, FTEs got stock options which later resulted in far greater monetary compensation as the company grew, compared to the people brought onboard as contractors.

Contractors upset and sued.

Argument:

Used economic realities test to show misclassification.

• contractors worked for 4 years

• worked integrally to the business

• under a lot of control

• using Microsoft’s technology to work (computers, etc.)

Contractors won $97M

In the future, made it so that contractors can only work for less than a year and have to take a 6 month break before coming back to reapply to work for them.

LLC Downsides

• hard to sell ownership stake (needs consent of others)

Ford NPR story

Guy wanted to establish a ford dealership online, statutes in place that make it impossible.

universal agent

someone that can do all acts that can be performed by an agent, given power of attorney as well for business transactions

general agent

someone who can execute all transactions related to a certain business (like a manager)

special agent

limited time agent for a specific transaction

agency coupled with an interest

when an agent pays for rights to a type of authority

lender gives agent money to buy house to use as rental, rent goes to pay off loan. agent becomes lender’s rent liaison.

gratuitous agent

volunteer agent

subagents

an agents agent

formation of agency relationship

principal shows desire for agent to act on their behalf, agent’s consent.

agreement of parties, ratification of agent’s activities by principal, estoppel, operation of law

principal’s duties to agent

• cooperate

• compensate

• reimburse

• indemnify

agent’s duties to principal

• fiduciary

• loyalty

• obedience + performance

• reasonable care

• account

• inform

vicarious liability

the idea that employers can be held liable for unintentional or negligent torts of an employee acting within the scope of their employment

employer responsible for an employee who accidentally messes something up, causing harm to others

respondeat superior

the doctrine that says vicarious liability can be imposed upon an innocent principal

let the master answer

exculpatory agreements

agreements that prevent an employee from suing an employer. usually rejected by virtue of public policy

anti raiding covenants

agreement in an employee contract that says that employees won’t recruit old coworkers to their new company

worker’s comp claim

1. injury

2. result of accident or occupation

3. arose out of and during the course of employment

Equal Pay Act of 1963

first anti wage discrimination act.

wages for men and women in the same job must be equal unless due to

• seniority

• merit

• quantity/quality of production

• anything that’s not sex

Title VII

illegal for an employer with 15 or more workers to

• discriminate against anyone by failing to hire or firing them

• segregate or limit workers because of race, sex, religion, color, national origin

also led to the creation of the EEOC (equal employment opportunity commission)

sexual harassment

• quid pro quo

• hostile environment

constructive discharge

when someone quits due to harassment

disparate treatment

claim filed for discrimination.

plaintiff must prove that defendant intentionally discriminated against them due to a personal characteristic.

McDonnell-Douglas Test

• belongs to a protected class

• met job qualifications

• subject to adverse employment action

• led to inference of discrimination

used to prove a prima facie case, first step in a disparate treatment suit to prove that there is a case worth arguing. plaintiff must prove prima facie to engage in suit.

disparate impact

when an employer makes a rule that unintentionally impacts one group more than others

vicarious liability test

• did the employer authorize the act

• was the act furthering the employers interests

• was the same act commonly authorized and done

• how much were the employer’s or employee’s interests advanced by the act

• did the employer give them a tool to do it

• did the employer expect them to do it

• commission of a serious intentional act (doctrine doesnt apply)

ultra vires

when an agent acts outside of the scope of authority given to them by the principal

economic realities test

contractor vs. employee

• permanence

• degree of skill

• worker’s investment in equipment

• worker’s opportunity for profit

• degree of employer’s control

• whether the service is integral to employer’s business

Actual Malice Test

Used when suing press for publication regarding a public figure, publication must be knowingly false or with reckless disregard for the truth

Test for suing press as non public figure

Just have to prove that the press was negligent

Intentional interference with a contract

1. valid contract

2. defendant knew about it

3. defendant induced a breach

4. no justification

5. there were damages

strict liability

manufacturer held strictly liable when:

1. there is a construction defect

2. there is a breach of warranty

risk-utility test

would the likelihood of an injury occurring outweigh the burden on the manufacturer to design the product in a way the prevented it

used when:

1. design defect

2. inadequate warnings

when is a product seller liable

if

1. claimaint’s harm was caused by product seller

2. breach of express warranty made by product seller

3. intentional misrepresentation of facts by product seller

bribery

paying $ to a gov official in exchange for doing something that would ordinarily be part of their job

RICO

if you can prove that people are in a conspiracy to commit multiple crimes from a list of about 30 during an ongoing period of time you can wrap all the charges together and charge them for RICO which gives them a way worse sentence

mainly used for organized criminals

money laundering

disguising financial assets to be used while hiding the illegal way they were obtained

international business rule

when international companies do business in the US they have to follow US in every part of their business, even the parts overseas

beneficial owners

when a bunch of layered shell companies own a piece of property with someone behind all of them

corporate transparency act

forces beneficial owners to be disclosed

economic espionage

theft of IP on a massive scale, like if ip is being sold to foreign countries

tax evasion

not paying taxes. any form of compensation has taxes, even compensation that isn’t monetary

insider trading test

• has or possesses material information significant to an investor

• info is nonpublic

• knowingly trades or causes others to trade based on this info