SEVERANCE: JUSTICE FOR MORE

Authors

  • Thomas Lipton

Abstract

Increased use of severance could ease the crisis of civil justice. Hearing the liability and damages portions of trials separately and sequentially would make most civil trials faster and cheaper. Severance also affects jury trials, witnesses’ credibility, a court’s accuracy, privacy, and extra-legal negotiation. Furthermore, severing more trials would cause stronger parties to win more often as studies show that severance reduces underdog bias. Moreover, there are theoretical implications of severance such as its relationship to concentrated proceedings and the law of evidence and the increasing administrative character of law. Overall, severance offers Canadians a new concept of justice that emphasizes access to justice.

Keywords:

Procedure, Severance, Access to justice, Juries

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Published

2010-10-01

Issue

Section

Legal Commentary