Litigation and Inequality: Federal Diversity Jurisdiction in Industrial America, 1870-1958
Litigation and Inequality explores the dynamic and intricate relationship between legal and social change through the prism of litigation tactics and out-of-court settlement practices from the 1870s to the 1950s. Developing the synthetic historical concept of a "social litigation system", Purcell analyzes the role of both substansive and procedural law, as well as the impact of social and political factors in shaping the de facto processes of litigation and claims-disputing. Focusing on tort...
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Through the prism of litigation practice and tactics, Purcell explores the dynamic relationship between legal and social change. He studies changing litigation patterns in suits between individuals and national corporations over tort claims for personal injuries and contract claims for insurance benefits. Purcell refines the "progressive" claim that the federal courts favored business enterprise during this time, identifying specific manners and times in which the federal courts reached decisions both in favor of and against national corporations. He also identifies 1892-1908 as a critical period in the evolution of the twentieth century federal judicial system.
Introduction31.Origins of a Social Litigation System132.The Social Structure of Party Inequality and the Informal Legal Process283.The Federal Common Law594.The Battle for Forum Control, I: The Jurisdictional Amount and the Limits of Corporate Liability875.The Battle for Forum Control, II: Joinder and the Limits of the System1046.Removal and the Problems of Local Prejudice: Three Perspectives on the System1277.Contraction and Evolution: The System After 19101488.The Rise of Interstate Forum Shopping1779.Tactical Escalation in Insurance Litigation20010.Disintegration21711.Retrospective: History, Procedure, and the Social Role of the Federal Courts244Notes293Index419
