About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

36 T. Jefferson L. Rev. 105 (2013-2014)
Bucking the Trend: Why California Should Reject the Conventional Wisdom on Civil Litigation Reform

handle is hein.journals/tjeflr36 and id is 113 raw text is: BUCKING THE TREND: WHY CALIFORNIA SHOULD REJECT THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ON CIVIL LITIGATION REFORM Judge Lisa Foster (Ret.)* Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ............................... 106 II. JUST THE FACTS: A STATISTICAL OVERVIEW OF CIVIL CASES IN CALIFORNIA AND SAN DIEGO ........ 111 A. Limited Data, Limited Analysis .......... ....... 112 B. Findings and Analysis ........................... 115 III. THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: HOW TWO MODELS OF CIVIL LITIGATION REFORM CAME TO DOMINATE THE DISCUSSION AND WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT WHETHER THEY WORK .......... 120 A. Politics and Practice: The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Civil Justice Reform Act.................. 120 B. Masters of Reform: The Task Force on Discovery and Civil Litigation ....................... ..... 129 C. Where's the Beef: Evaluating Reform.... ............. 135 1. Mandatory Disclosure ..................... 135 2. Fact-Based Pleading ...................... 145 3. Expedited Jury Trials ...................... 150 4. Active Judicial Case Management .................. 155 IV. CALIFORNIA: A BRIEF HISTORY OF CIVIL REFORM..... 161 A. The Economical Litigation Pilot Project ..... ...... 161 * Judge Foster retired from the San Diego Superior Court in February 2013 after ten years of service. She currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. This article began as a project undertaken while Judge Foster was on a leave of absence from the court. She is grateful for the time the Judicial Council and her colleagues in San Diego allowed for her to think and write about these issues. Judge Foster also acknowledges Michael Roddy, Executive Officer of the San Diego Superior Court and Dag McLeod, Manager, Office of Court Research, Administrative Office of the Courts for their invaluable assistance with gathering and interpreting court statistics. 105

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most