Download or read book World Aerospace written by and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lawyers Lawsuits and Legal Rights written by Thomas F. Burke and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Burke drills deep into America's unique culture of litigation and is rewarded with a powerful insight: it is not the public or even lawyers that are so darn litigious, but American law itself. This meticulous, dispassionate book stands not only to advance the debate but—I hope—to reshape it."—Jonathan Rauch, author of Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working "Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights is a fascinating study of the American penchant for public policies that rely on lawsuits to get things done. Burke's analysis is insightful and original. This book compellingly shows that litigious policies have deep roots in our Constitution, culture, and politics."—Charles Epp, author of The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective "Burke's authoritative book demonstrates that the highly litigious American system is not an isolated anomaly but in fact fits in with deeply-rooted elements of American political culture. Where citizens of other countries rely on expert or bureaucratic judgment to resolve disputes, Americans turn to the courts. Equally novel and compelling, Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights marshals an impressive set of evidence and delivers a refreshingly well-written look at the state of American litigation."—Frank R. Baumgartner, co-author of Agendas and Instability in American Politics
Download or read book American Litigiousness Historical sources and reform efforts written by Jane Vetter and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2008-10-13 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Cultural Studies - Miscellaneous, University of North Florida, language: English, abstract: Thousands of lawsuits are discussed in courts in the United States every day, and there is a tremendous quantity of lawyers per capita. (Olson, Excerpt 1) Since other advanced democracies around the world cannot compete with such high numbers, experts, advocates, and ordinary people ask if there has been a litigation explosion, apparently leading to higher cost for society, and damaging the reputation of the American legal system and its participants. Many causes have been named such as greedy attorneys, whiny plaintiffs, and lavish insurance businesses. The following paper will discuss how the United States has become litigious and strongly refers to Thomas F. Burke’s book Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights, which gives structural explanations and case studies. Furthermore, the essay will examine how reasonable Burke argues, and look into reform possibilities and the progress made.
Download or read book Lawyers Lawsuits and Legal Rights written by Thomas F. Burke and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-10-29 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lawsuits over coffee burns, playground injuries, even bad teaching: litigation "horror stories" create the impression that Americans are greedy, quarrelsome, and sue-happy. The truth, as this book makes clear, is quite different. What Thomas Burke describes in Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights is a nation not of litigious citizens, but of litigious policies—laws that promote the use of litigation in resolving disputes and implementing public policies. This book is a cogent account of how such policies have come to shape public life and everyday practices in the United States. As litigious policies have proliferated, so have struggles to limit litigation—and these struggles offer insight into the nation's court-centered public policy style. Burke focuses on three cases: the effort to block the Americans with Disabilities Act; an attempt to reduce accident litigation by creating a no-fault auto insurance system in California; and the enactment of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. These cases suggest that litigious policies are deeply rooted in the American constitutional tradition. Burke shows how the diffuse, divided structure of American government, together with the anti-statist ethos of American political culture, creates incentives for political actors to use the courts to address their concerns. The first clear and comprehensive account of the national politics of litigation, his work provides a new way to understand and address the "litigiousness" of American society.
Download or read book Tort Reform Plaintiffs Lawyers and Access to Justice written by Stephen Daniels and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tort reform is a favorite cause for many business leaders and right-leaning politicians, who contend that out-of-control lawsuits throttle growth and inflate costs, particularly in healthcare. Less is said about how such reforms might affect the ability of individuals to recover damages for injuries suffered through another party's negligence. On that count, Texas--where efforts at tort reform have been energetic and successful--provides an opportunity to appraise the outcome for plaintiffs and their lawyers, an opportunity that Stephen Daniels and Joanne Martin take full advantage of in this timely and provocative work. Because much of the action on tort reform takes place on the state level, a look at the experience of Texas, a large and important state with a very active plaintiff's bar, is especially instructive. Plaintiffs' lawyers work on a contingency fee basis, collecting compensation for themselves as a percentage only if they win. Reduce lawyers' ability to use contingency fees as compensation, as tort reform inevitably does, and you reduce their economic incentive to do this work. Daniels and Martin’s study bears this out. Drawing on over 20 years of research, extensive surveys and interviews, the authors explore the impact the tort reform movement in Texas has had on the ability of plaintiffs to obtain judgments--in short on private citizens' meaningful access to the full power of the law. In the course of their analysis, the authors explain the history and economics behind the workings of the plaintiffs’ bar. They explore how lawyers select cases and clients, as well as the referral process that moves cases among lawyers and allows for specialization. They also examine the effects of medical malpractice reforms on plaintiffs' lawyers--reforms that often close the courthouse doors to certain types of people--tort reform's "hidden victims." Plaintiffs' lawyers are the civil justice system's gatekeepers, providing meaningful access to the rights the law provides. Daniels and Martin’s thorough and fair-minded work offers a unique and sobering perspective on how tort reform can curtail this access--and thus, the legal rights of American citizens.
Download or read book In Praise of Litigation written by Alexandra Lahav and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-02 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the right to have one's day in court is a cherished feature of the American democratic system, alarms that the United States is hopelessly litigious and awash in frivolous claims have become so commonplace that they are now a fixture in the popular imagination. According to this view, litigation wastes precious resources, stifles innovation and productivity, and corrodes our social fabric and the national character. Calls for reform have sought, often successfully, to limit people's access to the court system, most often by imposing technical barriers to bringing suit. Alexandra Lahav's In Praise of Litigation provides a much needed corrective to this flawed perspective, reminding us of the irreplaceable role of litigation in a well-functioning democracy and debunking many of the myths that cloud our understanding of this role. For example, the vast majority of lawsuits in the United States are based on contract claims, the median value of lawsuits is on a downward trend, and, on a per capita basis, many fewer lawsuits are filed today than were filed in the 19th century. Exploring cases involving freedom of speech, foodborne illness, defective cars, business competition, and more, the book shows that despite its inevitable limitations, litigation empowers citizens to challenge the most powerful public and private interests and hold them accountable for their actions. Lawsuits change behavior, provide information to consumers and citizens, promote deliberation, and express society's views on equality and its most treasured values. In Praise of Litigation shows how our court system protects our liberties and enables civil society to flourish, and serves as a powerful reminder of why we need to protect people's ability to use it. The tort reform movement has had some real successes in limiting what can reach the courts, but there have been victims too. As Alexandra Lahav shows, it has become increasingly difficult for ordinary people to enforce their rights. In the grand scale of lawsuits, actually crazy or bogus lawsuits constitute a tiny minority; in fact, most anecdotes turn out to be misrepresentations of what actually happened. In In Praise of Litigation, Lahav argues that critics are blinded to the many benefits of lawsuits. The majority of lawsuits promote equality before the law, transparency, and accountability. Our ability to go to court is a sign of our strength as a society and enables us to both participate in and reinforce the rule of law. In addition, joining lawsuits gives citizens direct access to governmental officials-judges-who can hear their arguments about issues central to our democracy, including the proper extent of police power and the ability of all people to vote. It is at least arguable that lawsuits have helped spur major social changes in arenas like race relations and marriage rights, as well as made products safer and forced wrongdoers to answer for their conduct. In this defense, Lahav does not ignore the obvious drawbacks to litigiousness. It is expensive, stressful, and time consuming. Certainly, sensible reforms could make the system better. However, many of the proposals that have been adopted and are currently on the table seek only to solve problems that do not exist or to make it harder for citizens to defend their rights and to enforce the law. This is not the answer. In Praise of Litigation offers a level-headed and law-based assessment of the state of litigation in America as well as a number of practical steps that can be taken to ensure citizens have the right to defend themselves against wrongs while not odiously infringing on the rights of others.
Download or read book Legal Culture And The Legal Profession written by Lawrence M Friedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Distinguished scholars in law and the social sciences examine the state of American legal culture, particularly adversarial legalism, in light of the criticisms of the current anti-lawyer movement. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of this culture, its impact on the broader society, and its recent spread to other countries. The American legal system is under heavy attack for the impact it is supposed to have on American culture and society generally. A common complaint of the anti-lawyer movement is that under the influence of lawyers we have become a litigious society, in the process undermining traditional American values such as self-reliance and responsibility. In this volume a group of distinguished scholars in law and the social sciences explores these questions. Neither an apology for lawyers nor a critique, Legal Culture and the Legal Profession examines the successes and the problems of the U. S. legal system, its impact on the broader culture, and the spread of American legal culture abroad.
Download or read book No Contest written by Ralph Nader and published by Random House. This book was released on 1998-12-22 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.
Download or read book The Litigation State written by Sean Farhang and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the 1.65 million lawsuits enforcing federal laws over the past decade, 3 percent were prosecuted by the federal government, while 97 percent were litigated by private parties. When and why did private plaintiff-driven litigation become a dominant model for enforcing federal regulation? The Litigation State shows how government legislation created the nation's reliance upon private litigation, and investigates why Congress would choose to mobilize, through statutory design, private lawsuits to implement federal statutes. Sean Farhang argues that Congress deliberately cultivates such private lawsuits partly as a means of enforcing its will over the resistance of opposing presidents. Farhang reveals that private lawsuits, functioning as an enforcement resource, are a profoundly important component of American state capacity. He demonstrates how the distinctive institutional structure of the American state--particularly conflict between Congress and the president over control of the bureaucracy--encourages Congress to incentivize private lawsuits. Congress thereby achieves regulatory aims through a decentralized army of private lawyers, rather than by well-staffed bureaucracies under the president's influence. The historical development of ideological polarization between Congress and the president since the late 1960s has been a powerful cause of the explosion of private lawsuits enforcing federal law over the same period. Using data from many policy areas spanning the twentieth century, and historical analysis focused on civil rights, The Litigation State investigates how American political institutions shape the strategic design of legislation to mobilize private lawsuits for policy implementation.
Download or read book No Contest written by Ralph Nader and published by Random House. This book was released on 1998-12-22 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.
Download or read book Adversarial Legalism written by Robert A. Kagan and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first edition of this groundbreaking book, Robert Kagan explained why America is much more adversarial—likely to rely on legal threats and lawsuits—than other economically advanced countries, with more prescriptive laws, more costly adjudications, and more severe penalties. This updated edition also addresses the rise of the conservative legal movement and anti-statism in the Republican party, which have put in sharp relief the virtues of adversarial legalism in its ability to empower citizens, lawyers, and judges to mount challenges to the arbitrary or unlawful exercise of government authority. “This is a wonderful piece of work, richly detailed and beautifully written. It is the best, sanest, and most comprehensive evaluation and critique of the American way of law that I have seen. Every serious scholar concerned with justice and efficiency, and every policymaker who is serious about improving the American legal order, should read this trenchant and exciting book.” —Lawrence Friedman, Stanford University “A tour de force. It is an elegantly written, consistently insightful analysis and critique of the American emphasis on litigation and punitive sanctions in the policy and administrative process.” —Charles R. Epp, Law and Society Review
Download or read book Lawyers Beyond Borders written by Maria Armoudian and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite international conventions and human rights declarations, millions of people have suffered and continue to suffer torture, slavery, or violent deaths, with no remedy or recourse. They have fallen, in essence, “below the law,” outside of law’s protection. Often violated by their own governments, sometimes with support from transnational corporations, or nations benefiting from human rights violations, how can these victims find justice? Lawyers Beyond Borders reveals the inner workings of the advances and retreats in the quest for redress and restoration of human rights for those whom international legal-political systems have failed. The process of justice begins in the US, with a handful of human rights lawyers steeped in the American tradition of advancing civil rights through civil litigation. As the civil rights movement gained traction and an ample supply of lawyers, this small cadre turned their attention toward advancing international human rights, via the US legal system. They sought to build another piece of the rights revolution, this time for survivors of egregious human rights violations in faraway lands. These cases were among the most unlikely to be slated for victory: The abuses occurred abroad; the victims are aliens, usually with few, if any, resources; the perpetrators are politically powerful, resourced, and well connected, often members of governments, militaries, or multinational corporations. The legal and political systems’ structures are mostly stacked against these survivors, many who bear the scars of trauma and terror. Lawyers Beyond Borders is about agency. It is about how, in the face of powerful interests and seemingly insurmountable obstacles—political, psychological, economic, geographical, and physical—a small group of lawyers and survivors navigated a terrain of daunting barriers to begin building, case-by-case, new pathways to justice for those who otherwise would have none.
Download or read book Distorting the Law written by William Haltom and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-11-15 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, stories of reckless lawyers and greedy citizens have given the legal system, and victims in general, a bad name. Many Americans have come to believe that we live in the land of the litigious, where frivolous lawsuits and absurdly high settlements reign. Scholars have argued for years that this common view of the depraved ruin of our civil legal system is a myth, but their research and statistics rarely make the news. William Haltom and Michael McCann here persuasively show how popularized distorted understandings of tort litigation (or tort tales) have been perpetuated by the mass media and reform proponents. Distorting the Law lays bare how media coverage has sensationalized lawsuits and sympathetically portrayed corporate interests, supporting big business and reinforcing negative stereotypes of law practices. Based on extensive interviews, nearly two decades of newspaper coverage, and in-depth studies of the McDonald's coffee case and tobacco litigation, Distorting the Law offers a compelling analysis of the presumed litigation crisis, the campaign for tort law reform, and the crucial role the media play in this process.
Download or read book From the Closet to the Courtroom written by Carlos A. Ball and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.
Download or read book Total Justice written by Lawrence M. Friedman and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 1985-08-14 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a widely held belief today that there are too many lawsuits, too many lawyers, too much law. As readers of this engaging and provocative essay will discover, the evidence for a "litigation explosion" is actually quite ambiguous. But the American legal profession has become extremely large, and it seems clear that the scope and reach of legal process have indeed increased greatly. How can we best understand these changes? Lawrence Friedman focuses on transformations in American legal culture—that is, people's beliefs and expectations with regard to law. In the early nineteenth century, people were accustomed to facing sudden disasters (disease, accidents, joblessness) without the protection of social and private insurance. The uncertainty of life and the unavailability of compensation for loss were mirrored in a culture of low legal expectations. Medical, technical, and social developments during our own century have created a very different set of expectations about life, again reflected in our legal culture. Friedman argues that we are moving toward a general expectation of total justice, of recompense for all injuries and losses that are not the victim's fault. And the expansion of legal rights and protections in turn creates fresh expectations, a cycle of demand and response. This timely and important book articulates clearly, and in nontechnical language, the recent changes that many have sensed in the American legal system but that few have discussed in so powerful and sensible a way. Total Justice is the third of five special volumes commissioned by the Russell Sage Foundation to mark its seventy-fifth anniversary.
Download or read book The Other Rights Revolution written by Jefferson Decker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1973, a group of California lawyers formed a non-profit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to defending conservative principles in court. Calling themselves the Pacific Legal Foundation, they declared war on the U.S. regulatory state--the sets of rules, legal precedents, and bureaucratic processes that govern the way Americans do business. Believing that the growing size and complexity of government regulations threatened U.S. economy and infringed on property rights, Pacific Legal Foundation began to file a series of lawsuits challenging the government's power to plan the use of private land or protect environmental qualities. By the end of the decade, they had been joined in this effort by spin-off legal foundations across the country. The Other Rights Revolution explains how a little-known collection of lawyers and politicians--with some help from angry property owners and bulldozer-driving Sagebrush Rebels--tried to bring liberal government to heel in the final decades of the twentieth century. Decker demonstrates how legal and constitutional battles over property rights, preservation, and the environment helped to shape the political ideas and policy agendas of modern conservatism. By uncovering the history--including the regionally distinctive experiences of the American West--behind the conservative mobilization in the courts, Decker offers a new interpretation of the Reagan-era right.
Download or read book And Justice for Some written by Wendy Murphy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies current criminal rights practices that limit the abilities of victims to receive justice, including such tactics as victim privacy invasion, intimidating cross-examinations, and defense presentations that are designed to distort the truth.
