SPRING BRINGS LAWYERS
TO WASHINGTON
civilian life and to provide lifelong care for
service-connected wounds. Most veterans
make these transitions and are natural
leaders in their communities. However,
relatively simple setbacks can start cycles of
unemployment, declining health, poverty, and
homelessness.
D A N T R AY N O R
ABA Delegate
Lawyers from around the country gathered
in Washington, D.C., for ABA Days and the
94th Annual Meeting of the American Law
Institute. The ABA gathered at the end of
April to lobby Congress on issues important
to lawyers. The Annual American Law
Institute (ALI) meeting continued its work
on several important substantive topics that
may be of interest to North Dakota lawyers.
Legal Services for the Poor at Risk
with a Tight Federal Budget
The ABA urged Congress to continue
funding for access to justice programs and
support for homeless veterans. Legal aid is a
familiar topic for ABA Days, which started
in the 1980s to save funding for the Legal
Services Corporation (LSC).
The Trump Administration’s first crack at
a budget proposed to eliminate funding
for LSC. For decades the ABA has been
defending LSC as part of the core American
value of equal justice under law. The ABA
describes LSC as the central foundation
for the legal aid system, providing access to
justice for vulnerable Americans.
The ABA also pushed for resources to aid
homeless veterans. Many federal and state
government programs operate to help
veterans make successful transitions to
ABA President Linda Klein expressed
sup port for The Homeless Veterans Legal
Services Act to authorize the Department of
Veterans Affairs to enter into partnerships to
deliver legal services to homeless veterans.
As always, North Dakota’s congressional
delegation was very generous with their time
and interest in issues of equal justice for all.
The SBAND delegation met with Senators
John Hoeven, and Heidi Heitkamp and staff
from Congressman Kevin Cramer’s office to
discuss issues of interest to North Dakota
lawyers.
ALI Members Discuss Intentional
Torts, Liability Insurance, and
Sexual Crimes
The ALI will gather at the end of May in
Washington for the 94th Annual Meeting.
Several North Dakota lawyers, judges, and
law professors are members of the ALI.
The ALI’s ongoing rewrite of the
Restatement Second of Torts includes
significant revisions to substantive topics of
offensive battery and false imprisonment.
The offensive battery revision includes a
more complete explanation of the rationale
for extending liability where a known
extra-sensitivity is present and the contact is
highly offensive. This proposal has brought
opposition from scholars who suggest the
revisions are too innovative and argue it is not
enough to simply say, without explanation,
that this is what courts seem to be doing.
The revision relating to false imprisonment
seeks to clarify what constitutes confinement.
The bad actor need not create the area of
confinement. The draft Restatement notes
it is sufficient that the actor precludes
the plaintiff ’s exit from a limited or
circumscribed area, even if nature or another
person created those limits.
A proposed final draft of the Restatement of
the Law Liability Insurance includes chapters
relating to basic liability insurance contract
rules, management of liability claims, risks
insured, enforceability, and remedies. Larry
Boschee from Bismarck and Joe Wetch from
Fargo have also been monitoring the liability
insurance project.
With the detachment of sex from matrimony
and pregnancy, society demands the law
define the line between what’s consensual
and what isn’t. Last year’s meeting produced
a proposal from the floor to interpret
consent to include “knowingly or recklessly”
engage in sexual contact without consent.
In some respects, the Restatement’s consent
requirement could be described as codifying
“yes means yes.”
It is expected Model Penal Code (MPC)
revisions to Sexual Assault and Related
Offenses will again bring the most interesting
discussion at the ALI meeting. Although
the MPC revisions are in a tentative draft,
they include grading recommendations
for Forcible Rape and Oral Sex without
Consent.
The ALI Annual Meeting will also discuss
projects relating to Charitable Nonprofit
Organizations, The Foreign Relations Law,
International Commercial Arbitration,
Policing and Sentencing. A complete list of
the ALI’s current projects is available on the
ALI’s website, www.ali.org.
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