01:790:106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Subpoena Duces Tecum, Personal Injury
26 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
12: Civil Litigation
★Forms of civil litigation
○ Contract disputes (most common)
○ Personal injury
○ Property, such as real estate
○ Employment
○ Malpractice
○ Wills and estates
○ Small claims
★Possible remedies in civil litigation
○ Monetary payment of damages.
■Compensatory
covers costs of injury
■Punitive
as punishment for malicious actions
○ Restitution of lost property
○ Declaration of rights
○ Injunctions or court orders
★Social benefits of tort law
○ Fairness - compensate victims for injuries you caused
○ Social Control - discourages bad behavior by creating consequences, and
giving people an incentive to be careful not to hurt others
★Repeat players (such as government agencies and corporations) generally do
better in court than one-shotters
○ Precedents and legal rules tend to favor repeat players, who have more
economic resources
★Role of lawyers in civil litigations
○ Serve as gatekeepers for potential plaintiffs
○ Commonly rely on contingency fees to recover legal costs at settlement
(or court judgement) as well as a portion of the settlement or judgement,
generally about 30%
★Discovery
○ Deposition - the sworn testimony of a witness taken out of court. A court
order to appear, known as subpoena might be issued
○ Subpoena duces tecum for production of documents
○ Interrogatory - series of written questions designed to get answers to
factual questions or an explanation of the other side’s legal contentions
* The number of civil lawsuits filed each year in state courts have fallen by 21% after
hitting a peak of 19.5 million cases in 2009
