Trial by judges: trial by jury is a shibboleth we can no longer afford. But there is still a place for vox populi.
IN ALL THE wringing of hands about race, civil rights, and the relations between police and public occasioned by the Rodney King verdicts, no one has dared to criticize that sacred cow, "trial by jury." No institution competing in the marketplace would ever survive if at its core it...

In defense of the exclusionary rule.
I. INTRODUCTION The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported...

SC orders: Back to school for lawyers.
Starting Oct. 1 this year, lawyers have to undergo at least 36 hours of schooling every three years to hone up their competence and skills. Their failure to comply with the requirement will be a ground to disbar them, the Supreme Court warned. (See earlier story on...

Minorities, mediation and method: the view from one court-connected mediation program.
INTRODUCTION This Article offers a granular, first-person view of cross-cultural dynamics in small claims court mediations in a metropolitan area with a population of one million people. It presents a four-year qualitative study of mediation processes in 125 cases involving minorities, drawn from studies involving about 300...

Christians urged to pray for justices handling Erap case.
The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) yesterday called on all Christians to pray for the Sandiganbayan so that its decision on the case of former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada will be fair and based on evidence. "Pray specifically for the special division of the Sandiganbayan that...

Jury selection errors on appeal.
I. INTRODUCTION Claims that errors were made during jury selection are among the most common of all grounds for criminal appeals. (1) Yet appellate courts, both state and federal, seem profoundly confused about how to analyze these kinds of errors. The confusion has its roots in a...

Better juries than judges.
Byline: The Register-Guard Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must impose death sentences. Now, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has applied that ruling by changing the death sentences of more than 100 inmates in Arizona, Montana and...

Johnson v. California: the Supreme Court invades the States' authority to establish criminal procedures.
I. INTRODUCTION In Johnson v. California, the United States Supreme Court held that California's procedure for evaluating a defendant's objections to the prosecution's peremptory challenges placed too high of a burden for the defendant to establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination. (1) California's criminal procedure...

Litigation privilege and disclosure of expert's file.
INTRODUCTION Expert opinion at trial is an exception in the law of evidence. The unique role of the testimonial expert, together with the fact that the expert is permitted to give opinion evidence where normally opinions are inadmissible, in part explain the steady expansion of disclosure...

Civil procedure - sufficiency of evidence not reviewable in absence of post-verdict judgment as a matter of law or new trial motion - Unitherm Food Systems, Inc. v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc.
Civil Procedure--Sufficiency of Evidence Not Reviewable in Absence of Post-Verdict Judgment as a Matter of Law or New Trial Motion--Unitherm Food Systems, Inc. v. Swift-Eckrich, Inc., 546 U.S. 394 (2006) The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were enacted in 1938 to "secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive...