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Friday, July 24, 2009
Courts - "Specter Proposes Return to Prior Pleading Standard"
Updating this ILB entry from July 20th on the end of notice pleading as we know it, at least in federal court, David Ingram of The National Law Journal has a report today that begins:
Congress is preparing to wade into the growing debate over the pleading standard for civil lawsuits, after two recent Supreme Court decisions effectively upended long-standing precedent.Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., filed legislation Wednesday designed to return the standard to what it was prior to 2007, when the Court handed down its ruling in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly. That case and another -- Ashcroft v. Iqbal from the most recent term -- have raised the standard that pleaders must meet to avoid having their cases quickly tossed.
Specter, in remarks prepared for the Senate floor, accused the Court's majorities of making an end run around precedent with the two recent cases.
"The effect of the Court's actions will no doubt be to deny many plaintiffs with meritorious claims access to the federal courts and, with it, any legal redress for their injuries," Specter said. "I think that is an especially unwelcome development at a time when, with the litigating resources of our executive-branch and administrative agencies stretched thin, the enforcement of federal antitrust, consumer protection, civil rights and other laws that benefit the public will fall increasingly to private litigants."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 24, 2009 10:19 AM
Posted to Courts in general