JDEDJEDTJR's first plunge into Contract Law, Out of Touch with Reality
JDJEDTJR, the incarnation of law schools regardless of alleged quality, emphasizes above all Contract Law texts, "the Death of Contract", by Gilmore,( http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/081420676X/ref=sib_dp_bod_ex/002-6320582-2337641?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S003#reader-link ) written in 1995, lamenting Contract Law becoming irrelevant.
Actually, Contract Law filings though as of 2002 down 14% compared to 1987, were as of 2002 up 21% compared to 1995 the year Gilmore wrote his book.
The phantom that Gilmore called the "death of contract", was an illusion based in part on a general decline since 1993 of 32% in terms of number of Civil Trials in general, which outpaced a 12% decline in Civil Dispositions in general in the same period. This combined with a decline in Contract Law filings which leveled off in 1995, the same year Gilmore wrote his book, to produce the illusory "Death of Contract" phantom.
The general decline in the utilization of jury and bench trials, did not in reality signify the death of contract law. Rather it signified that plaintiffs and defendants were increasingly settling their disputes without trial. This does not in and of itself signal the death of contract law, because when parties settle their disputes out of court, the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads is the danger that the opposing party will drag them into court, and , therefore, when out of court or contemplating avoiding court, the opposing parties in their negotiations must continue to keep in mind events that might occur if the matter were eventually to end up in court, and therefore must continue to keep in mind contract law.
JDJEDTJR's favorite contracts law how-to basic textbook, Contract Law by Catherine Elliott, ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0582473306/qid=1111217492/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6320582-2337641?v=glance&s=books ) addresses in general contract law litigation.
Problem is, in the US, contract law cases that actually go to trial, are approx only 3% of all contract cases, 0.3% of all civil cases above the small-claims small-fry level, and 0.1% of all cases above the small-claims small-fry level.
By way of contrast, getting more specific than contract cases in general, specifically US contract cases involving a business filing against another business, and then settling out of court, such contract cases amounted to approx 20% of all contract cases, 2.1% of all civil cases above the small-claims small-fry level, and 0.8% of all cases above the small-claims small-fry level.
JDJEDTJR plunges into a detailed study of, generally speaking, contracts law trial, examining a situation that is extremely uncommon in the US. The more specific example of a business filing a contract law civil suit against another business and then settling out of court, is six times more common than the example of contract law trials in general.
JDJEDTJR would get his students closer to reality, if he introduced his students to contract law by focusing on an example of a business filing suit against a business and then settling out of court. Methods learned looking at the specific business vs business settled out of court example could be applied to cases not of the business vs business settled out of court type. The best way that JDJEDTJR could approach such an example, would be through an HTML flowchart constructed using a scripting language such as javascript.
But JDJEDTJR's first leap into contracts law, is instead, a generalized discussion of contract trial law, which of course he fails to combine with scripting language based flowcharts.
Inferences re case frequency in this section extrapolated from:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ccilc.pdf
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2002_Files/2002_Main_Page.html
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2002_Files/2002_Tort_Contract.pdf
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2003_Files/2003_Overview_Graphics.pdf
@2005 David Virgil Hobbs
These are my opinions at the current time; they may not correspond exactly with fact
Actually, Contract Law filings though as of 2002 down 14% compared to 1987, were as of 2002 up 21% compared to 1995 the year Gilmore wrote his book.
The phantom that Gilmore called the "death of contract", was an illusion based in part on a general decline since 1993 of 32% in terms of number of Civil Trials in general, which outpaced a 12% decline in Civil Dispositions in general in the same period. This combined with a decline in Contract Law filings which leveled off in 1995, the same year Gilmore wrote his book, to produce the illusory "Death of Contract" phantom.
The general decline in the utilization of jury and bench trials, did not in reality signify the death of contract law. Rather it signified that plaintiffs and defendants were increasingly settling their disputes without trial. This does not in and of itself signal the death of contract law, because when parties settle their disputes out of court, the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads is the danger that the opposing party will drag them into court, and , therefore, when out of court or contemplating avoiding court, the opposing parties in their negotiations must continue to keep in mind events that might occur if the matter were eventually to end up in court, and therefore must continue to keep in mind contract law.
JDJEDTJR's favorite contracts law how-to basic textbook, Contract Law by Catherine Elliott, ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0582473306/qid=1111217492/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6320582-2337641?v=glance&s=books ) addresses in general contract law litigation.
Problem is, in the US, contract law cases that actually go to trial, are approx only 3% of all contract cases, 0.3% of all civil cases above the small-claims small-fry level, and 0.1% of all cases above the small-claims small-fry level.
By way of contrast, getting more specific than contract cases in general, specifically US contract cases involving a business filing against another business, and then settling out of court, such contract cases amounted to approx 20% of all contract cases, 2.1% of all civil cases above the small-claims small-fry level, and 0.8% of all cases above the small-claims small-fry level.
JDJEDTJR plunges into a detailed study of, generally speaking, contracts law trial, examining a situation that is extremely uncommon in the US. The more specific example of a business filing a contract law civil suit against another business and then settling out of court, is six times more common than the example of contract law trials in general.
JDJEDTJR would get his students closer to reality, if he introduced his students to contract law by focusing on an example of a business filing suit against a business and then settling out of court. Methods learned looking at the specific business vs business settled out of court example could be applied to cases not of the business vs business settled out of court type. The best way that JDJEDTJR could approach such an example, would be through an HTML flowchart constructed using a scripting language such as javascript.
But JDJEDTJR's first leap into contracts law, is instead, a generalized discussion of contract trial law, which of course he fails to combine with scripting language based flowcharts.
Inferences re case frequency in this section extrapolated from:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ccilc.pdf
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2002_Files/2002_Main_Page.html
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2002_Files/2002_Tort_Contract.pdf
http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/csp/2003_Files/2003_Overview_Graphics.pdf
@2005 David Virgil Hobbs
These are my opinions at the current time; they may not correspond exactly with fact
posted by David Virgil at 5:16 AM
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