Emerging Trends in Civil Liability Cases Annotated Bibliography

Emerging Trends in Civil Liability Cases - Annotated Bibliography Example For a case to be successful, the applicant has to prove that the government official violated his or her constitutional or federal law rights and whether the officers acted under color of law. As such, the article presents a discussion of a series of case rulings in which the plaintiffs sought to be awarded legal relief under the provision of Section 83. The liability cases studied and analyzed by Ross are related to correctional officers, since such officials are at the highest risk of litigation. In total, the study examined 3,205 correctional liability cases filed against correctional officials under Section 1983. The claims for such cases were many and varied, but Ross identified sixteen categories indicating trends in the litigation claims. These categories include violation of free speech rights, cruel and unusual punishment, and failure to protect a claim. The large sample evaluated increases the reliability of the study. In addition, by examining the trend over a long period of time and considering cases from all facilities in the United States District Court system, the validity of the findings from the study is increased. This validity is further strengthened by the credibility of the researcher since Ross is a University Professor with the Criminal Justice Program. The study observed that majority of the cases were filed without legal counsel, and this could present a weakness in the findings since some of them could have no legal basis. According to Ross’ findings, the number of correctional liability claims filed under Section 1983 is directly related to the prisoner population and would continue to increase with a proportional increase in the population of prisoners. CJ professionals would use this fact to vary the population of inmates in particular correctional facilities, thus reducing potential conflicts that could result in litigation claims against correctional officers.