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Theresa J. Pulley Radwan, Domino Effect: The Continued Existence of Liability for Fraud in Bankruptcy Despite Good-Faith Settlements by the Honestly Unfortunate Settlor, 53 Cath. U. L. Rev. 81 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Theresa J. Pulley Radwan, Trustees in Trouble: Holding Bankruptcy Trustees Personally Liable for Professional Negligence, 35 Conn. L. Rev. 525 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Professional negligence is a fact of life. Insurance companies know this. Professionals know this. The general public knows this. However, not all professionals are responsible for their own negligence. For some professionals, negligence liability may be curbed for policy reasons. However, this article argues that no such policy reasons exist for limiting the personal liability of a negligent bankruptcy trustee.
Courts treat negligent trustees in one of three ways. The first, and most lenient standard for trustees, is that negligence, whether it be "mere negligence" or "gross negligence" will not subject a trustee to liability. In circuits following this standard, a trustee must take an intentional action in order to be personally liable for that action. This standard evolved from decisions in non-bankruptcy cases regarding immunity for judges and other court-appointed employees.
The second possible standard, which has gained popularity as a "middle-ground" alternative, allows trustees to be liable for gross negligence but not for mere negligence. In so doing, these courts have tried to hold a trustee liable for something less than his or her intentional actions without going so far as to hold a trustee liable for simple, garden-variety negligence.
Finally, some courts hold trustees personally liable for any type of negligence, as well as intentional actions. The rationale for this liability stems from the trustee's role as an attorney, subject to standards of reasonableness in light of the circumstances. This article argues that such a standard should be utilized by all courts in order to promote a fair distribution of bankruptcy assets among the creditors and to comply with public expectations of a trustee's performance. Although ideas of immunity evolve from legal ideas, these ideas are outdated and inapplicable in the context of modern bankruptcy cases. And, while gross negligence offers a middle ground, this article argues that defining professional negligence in terms of a similarly situated bankruptcy trustee obviates the need for such a middle ground.
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Paul Boudreaux, Federalism and the Contrivances of Public Law, 77 St. John's L. Rev. 523 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Rebecca C. Morgan, Book Review, I Only Say This Because I Love You, NAELA News (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Brooke J. Bowman, Our Extended Family, 17 Second Draft 16 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Luz Estella Nagle, Foreward, 32 Stetson L. Rev. 725 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
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Kirsten K. Davis, Designing and Using Peer Review in a First-Year Legal Research and Writing Course, 9 Legal Writing 1 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Using peer review in a first-year legal research and writing course has advantages. A peer review exercise encourages cooperation, puts students in the audience role, reinforces basic writing skills, and gives students experience with giving constructive feedback. This article provides information about designing an effective in-class peer review and reports how students responded to the exercise.
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Luz Estella Nagle, The Challenges of Fighting Global Organized Crime in Latin America, 26 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1649 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Latin American states have long been fertile ground for organized crime. Some of the world’s busiest corridors for trafficking in drugs, weapons, documents, and human beings run between and through Latin America and the United States and Canada. While Latin American states are signatories to many conventions and international agreements to fight organized crime, endemic corruption and the inability to Latin American states to enforce domestic law and honor international agreements hinders the capacity of international law enforcement partnerships to address transborder crime. This article looks as the duties of Latin American states to fight organized crime and the difficulties the states have in honoring is international responsibilities.
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Joseph F. Morrissey, Catching the Culprits: Is Sarbanes-Oxley Enough?, 2003 Colum. Bus. L. Rev. 801 (2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.
Catching the Culprits: Is Sarbanes-Oxley Enough discusses the fact that three major events occurred in the mid to late 1990s to make the securities fraud regulatory regime more lax. Those three events were: the elimination of a private right of action for aiding and abetting securities fraud, the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the PSLRA) and the passage of Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (the SLUSA). My conclusion is that while the Sarbanes-Oxley Act does create certain safeguards for investors, it does not undo the harm that those three events of the 1990s caused. My article argues that what is needed is for aiding and abetting liability to be revived and for the harsh anti-liability provisions of the PSLRA and the SLUSA to be rescinded.
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Ellen S. Podgor, Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984, in Major Acts of Congress (B. Landsberg ed., Macmillan Reference Books, 2003)Clicking on the button will copy the full recommended citation.