Vol. 69 No. 3, July 2002
Index
- A brief history of Rule 23.
- The Advisory Committee begins re-consideration of rule.
- Overlapping class actions.
- Unfinished business.
- Minimal diversity as a possible partial solution.
- Use and misuse of expert opinions at the class certification stage: use of expert opinions should not be permitted, but if courts continue to do so, defendants must attack the expert's qualifications and present their own.
- The law of unintended consequences: HIPAA and liability insurers; at first glance, the Privacy Regulations appear to be adverse to insurers and defense counsel, but McCarran-Ferguson and exceptions may save the day.
- Basics of business interruption insurance: the ins and outs of tricky coverage: it's important to know and interpret policy language, exclusions and coverages in order to state a valid claim under this insurance.
- Excess-primary insurer obligations and the rights of the insured: one area that needs clarification is the tension between the principle of horizontal exhaustion and the doctrine of targeted tender.
- Employers' liability for asbestos diseases: House of Lords takes a turn in English law: recent House of Lords decision may indicate a return to the lower "material contribution" causation test and a general lowering of the burden of proof.
- Overcoming jury bias: trial advocates must understand it and cope with it: there are several methods that can be used to deal with the long-held beliefs and dangerous biases held by jurors.
- Annual survey of fidelity and surety law, 2001.
- $25 million class settlement thrown out.
- Ford-Firestone class certifications nixed.
- Ninth and Fifth Circuits slash punitive awards.
- Judicial estoppel bars employment-related lawsuit.
- Federal banking law doesn't pre-empt state usury claims.
- Three justices would have heard judicial salary case.
- Attorney lacks standing to challenge court's rules.
- Newspaper cannot see GM's confidential settlement figures.