SBM Blog

First Impression: Personal Jurisdiction Established Through Website

The U.S. Supreme Court addressed the question of jurisdiction over foreign companies twice in 2011.  The first case was Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations S.A. v. Brown, holding that North Carolina state courts do not have jurisdiction in a wrongful-death case brought by the parents of North Carolina minors who died in a bus accident outside Paris. The second case, J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. v. Nicastro, reversing a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling against a foreign manufacturer, held that the manufacturer did not purposefully avail itself of the New Jersey market. In the face of these rulings (but not citing them), a Massachusetts state court this month claimed jurisdiction to hear a case against a French company because its website directs consumers to Massachusetts retailers. Here's a PDF of the opinion, LaFond v. Salomon North America Inc.. In a National Law Journal story on the Massachusetts case three civil procedure experts agree that both McIntyre and Goodyear leave many questions unanswered.

Michigan Law School Joins Yale and Chicago in Releasing Extensive Graduate Employment Data

And here it is.  Yale and Chicago, followed by Virginia and NYU, were lauded by the "law school transparency" advociates for their release of comprehensive data earlier this month. Hail, Michigan (although Brian Leiter wonders why Michigan has salary data on only "a bit more" than half of the class of 2010).

The Cost of Law School: What Do The Statistics Tell Us?

The NYT's piece suggesting that ABA regulations play a critical role in the affordability of law school is challenged at AmLawDaily by Law School Tuition Bubble's Matt Leichter in a piece grounded in data and replete with graphs.  Bottom line:

[W]hile the accreditation standards create an operational price floor, private ABA law schools could try running the "minor-league hustle": hiring cheaper full-time faculty, adhering to a higher student faculty ratio, hiring more local attorney-adjuncts for those clinical courses, skimping on the library as best as possible, using cheaper facilities, etc. This isn't to say that the accreditation standards and U.S. News have no effect on tuition, but law schools, especially those that are unattached to universities like NESL, can be cheaper under the current ABA system.

They just choose not to be.

Read the whole piece to understand Leichter's speculation about why private law schools make that choice.

 

On Not Using the N-Word

Adam Liptak's Sidebar column in the New York Times today, "A Rare But Grudging Judicial About-Face in Bias Case," tells the story of an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel's reconsideration this month of its decision last year that the use of the word "boy" by a white manager referring to adult black male employees had "no racial overtones." Here is the opinion upon reconsideration, reinstating a $1.4M verdict in the employee's favor, and here is the unpublished opinion it reversed. Liptak calls the new opinion "opaque and grudging," reflecting a view that the opinion's explanation for the signatories' change of heart was less than clear and forthright, and that the real explanation for the reversal was the embarrassment of a politically and critically unpopular decision.

A brief filed by 11 civil rights leaders in support of reconsideration said that "boy" is "either a proxy for or 'at the very least a close cousin' of the n-word. Liptak's story recounts how that point was made at trial. Note how the conventional and understandable avoidance of using the actual n-word in telling the story dilutes its import and momentarily injects an element of ambiguity:

“You know,” Anthony Ash, a black Tyson worker, testified in 2007, “being in the South, and everybody know being in the South, a white man says ‘boy’ to a black man, that’s an offensive word.”

“You might as well use the N-word if you are going to say that,” Mr. Ash added.

Then the lawyer uttered the word itself.

A word so powerful it can't be used, even when the very point is how powerful it is.

If You Love Detroit and Have 17 Minutes...

"Lemonade: Detroit" - 17-minute short. from Erik Proulx on Vimeo.

 

Governor Snyder Signs Ban on Public Entity Partner Benefits. Your Opinion?

Governor Snyder has signed HB 4770 into law as Public Act 297 of 2011. The act bans public employers from offering health insurance coverage to an unrelated adult living with a covered employee.  The Governor believes the act should not (and does not) apply to the state's public universities, given the provisions of the constitution addressing the powers of those institutions. Legislative supporters, however, believe that the new ban applies to state universities.

If, when asked your opinion on the question, you wish to maintain the excuse that you have not read the new law, read no further. Granted that your opinion on which institutions the act applies to doesn't count (unless you end up arguing the case and are persuasive), here nonetheless is the actual text of the enrolled bill and a representative constitutional provision on public universities.  What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Captivating Tribute to Our Medical Colleagues

  

While this is offered as an example of the progress being made in representations of injury and medical treatment, this one is especially fascinating video for those of us who have been patched up by surgical artists.

Michigan Supreme Court Amends Rule of Evidence on Competency of Juror as Witness

The amendment of Rule 606 of the Michigan Rules of Evidence announced today is effective Jan. 1, 2012. Additions are indicated by underlining and deletions are indicated by strikeover:

Rule 606. Competency of Juror as Witness.
(a)    At the trial. A member of the jury may not testify as a witness before that jury in the trial of the case in which the juror is sitting. No objection need be made in order to preserve the point.
(b)    Inquiry into validity of verdict or indictment. Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury’s deliberations or to the effect of anything upon that or any other juror’s mind or emotions as influencing the juror to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning the juror’s mental processes in connection therewith. But a juror may testify about (1) whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury’s attention, (2) whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror, or (3) whether there was a mistake in entering the verdict onto the verdict form. A juror’s affidavit or evidence of any statement by the juror may not be received on a matter about which the juror would be precluded from testifying.

The Court did not adopt a proposed change, published for comment and opposed by the State Bar and others, that would have restricted attorneys' access to jurors for purpose of gaining information about the jury deliberations:

Rule 2.512. Rendering Verdict.
(A)-(D) [Unchanged.]
(E)    Attorneys, parties, or anyone acting for them or on their behalf shall not, without filing a formal motion therefore with the court and securing the court’s permission, interrogate jurors in civil or criminal cases, either in person or in writing, in an attempt to determine the basis for any verdict rendered or to secure other information concerning the deliberations of the jury or any members thereof. The court itself may conduct such interrogation in lieu of granting permission to the movant.

The staff comment says that the amendment makes Michigan’s rule more consistent with FRE 606, and clarifies the types of information a juror may testify to if an inquiry is made into a verdict or indictment. Here's the text of FRE 606:

2012: The Year of the Law School Class Action Lawsuit?

PR Newswire says it could happen:

While only three consumer-fraud class actions have been filed against American law schools thus far, if pending motions to dismiss in these cases go nowhere, chances are good that a wave of new suits will be filed against law schools across the country, he said. Moreover, educational institutions that publish similar "consumer" data could easily become targets as well. "If pending motions to dismiss fail, the plaintiffs' bar will be emboldened," Smith concluded, "and these suits could spring up like wildfire."

Another Niche Practice Area You've Never Heard Of: Santa Claus Law

Within this charming Ann Arbor News story about Michigan lawyer Roland Davenport and his Santa Claus activities is this eye-opener:  Midland, Michigan is home to the world's oldest Santa Claus school.  Davenport has "attended every year since 2004, and now teaches a class on the legal responsibilities of being Santa, from drafting simple contracts for appearances to avoiding any appearance of impropriety (never go into a restroom where there is a child unless another adult is present)."

HT: ABA Journal