Civil Discovery: Lawyers'Views of Its Effectiveness, Its Principal Problems and Abuses

This article, the second in a three-part series based on interviews of 180 civil litigators in Chicago, describes lawyers'assessments of the health of the discovery system and their views about the relative severity of several major problems and abuses that burden the discovery process. The data present a disturbing picture of the way the discovery system functions, especially in larger cases. Big case litigators are much unhappier with the current state of affairs in discovery than are their smaller case counterparts, and apparently for good reason. Tactical jockeying, evasive and dilatory practices, and various forms of harassment play major and costly roles in a high percentage of large lawsuits. And in at least one of every two big cases the discovery system fails to distribute the relevant information to all the parties. Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of disaffection with the current state of affairs in major litigation, however, is the widespread support the lawyers expressed for more aggressive judicial involvement in the process and for more frequent, telling use of sanctions to punish its abusers.
The third article in this series will report the lawyers'reform proposals and will explore some of the implications of the data described here.     

Lawman and the Sabellian heresy

I wish to thank Dean Bernie Patterson and the Arts and Sciences Level I Committee for support on this project, although ultimately thanks should be extended to the Georgia College Foundation for its generous support of research and faculty development projects at Georgia College. I also wish to thank MEDTEXTLers Jim Marchand, Thomas Izbicki, and P.A. Binkley for bibliographic help on the topic of clerical education in twelfth- and thirteenth-century England.     

THE CHILDREN ACT 1989 AND THE VOICE OF THE CHILD IN FAMILY CONCILIATION

Over the past 10 years, there has been a rapid development of conciliation throughout Great Britain in matters relating to divorce and separation. The growth has been in terms of the accessibility of services as well as in the styles of conciliation practice offered. Throughout this period, the question of the involvement of children in conciliation has persisted as a key issue. Should children be involved at all, and if so, how should this involvement best be brought about? This article suggests that the change of philosophy regarding child law intended by the new Children Act 1989 will give considerable impetus to this debate and should lead to a clarification of the role of conciliation in allowing the voice of the child to be heard following divorce or separation.     

Beyond crime seriousness: Fitting the punishment to the crime

This paper presents an exposition of how the factorial survey approach may enhance empirical assessments of the complex judgment principles involved in public views of just punishments for convicted offenders. Ratings of the appropriateness of sentences given across 50 typical crimes obtained from a household sample (N=774) of the Boston SMSA and several special-interest samples in 1982 are examined in three alternative ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression equations. These analyses show there is not a one-to-one direct relationship between public perceptions of the seriousness of criminal acts and desired sanctions. Crime seriousness is modified by the characteristics of the offenders and victims and by the consequences of the crimes. Preferred punishments also vary in severity by demographic, experiential, and attitudinal characteristics of the persons who make the judgments.     

Improving the linkages between domestic violence referral agencies and the police: A research note

Domestic disputes pose serious threats to police officers and disputants alike. Crisis intervention training programs have improved the ability of police to quell a conflict temporarily, but national studies show that retuns to some households are not unusual, and they are increasingly hazardous. There are a number of service agencies in most jurisdictions having the goal of offering assistance to domestic disputants in hopes of a more permanent resolution to the conflict, but the linkage between these agencies and the police has been unsatisfactory. This article describes a program implemented at the Washtenaw Country Sheriff's Department, Ann Arbor, Michigan, designed to increase the rate of referral contact by domestic disputants. The program was implemented for a six-month period, and increased the follow-up contract rate by 600 percent.