Prefer humanity to complexity -- Rethink 90 percent of the typical complaint : make it about key facts, not law -- Address basic pleading and proof deficiencies with a single motion -- Decide cases once : use agency remands sparingly -- Reconsider standing challenges : they invite more lawsuits -- Reduce fighting over subject matter jurisdiction : the unheard will not remain unseen -- Order discovery when a case begins : police it without written motions -- Creatively manage complex cases : no case should be too big to try -- Mediate, but don't delay the case for it -- Streamline trials : they'll be more final, more credible -- Directly involve judges in jury selection -- Increase juror numbers and diversity with remote jury trials -- Question the number of motions in limine -- Most exhibits prove undisputed facts : we don't need them -- Actively oppose cumulative and time-wasting testimony -- Too much expert testimony is discrediting experts -- Consider common sense first in family court -- Introduce time clocks to encourage efficient trials -- Needless objections annoy judges and jurors -- Make a point, not a muddle, with prior testimony -- Punish misconduct when it happens rather than in a separate proceeding -- Cross-examine crisply, crushingly, or not at all -- Humanize overstuffed, bewildering jury charges and interrogatories -- Save time in court trials by substituting longer closing arguments for posttrial briefing -- Keep cases in the hands of a single judge from start to finish -- Speed cases to trial with judicial administration instead of slowing them down -- Accelerate and simplify justice with technology -- Virtual proceedings should be the rule -- As a judge, prefer the model of a village elder -- Cases are better resolved on their facts than on the law -- Deploy canons of construction sparingly, only when they have a compelling reason to exist -- Rarely resort to legislative history : it's often unreliable -- Reduce distractions by identifying fallacies -- Don't blur laws to conquer facts -- Endless consumer disclosures aren't doing us any good : they are just low-hanging fruit -- Reduce judicial testiness : use multipoint tests only when each point has meaning -- Similar-sounding cases aren't precedent -- The best legal writing is literature, not formula -- Don't plod through the history of the case and familiar standards -- Junk the jargon -- Needless detail is ... -- The best appellate decisions deeply and plainly explain the law -- There is a better home for law clerks outside of busy work and junior judging -- Appellate courts should reform rusty rules -- The best trial court decisions get straight to saying who wins and why -- Needless complexity obscures our basically honest courts -- Lawyers must discard outdated business models -- Courts must reimagine themselves -- Rethinking law clerking can remake the future -- Recognize needful complexity and meaningful formality -- Steady courts may mean a steadier country.
Summary:
"The American lawsuit is riddled with needless complexity. This book proposes fifty changes-that decide cases promptly-more on the facts than the law-more for the parties than the lawyers-more for the consequences to the people and the public-and in words we can all understand"-- Provided by publisher.
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