07.31.2013

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Articles

Criminal justice practitioners understand that ‘‘joint and several liability’’ stands for the common proposition that each co-conspirator should be equally responsible for all provable losses the conspiracy caused. Despite the dubious fairness of this one-size-fits-all approach, joint and several liability is, in fact, so common that federal prosecutors, defense counsel, and judges rarely even consider whether there might be some available alternatives.  As this article explains, the ready—and oft-overlooked—answer comes in the form of 18 U.S.C. § 3664(h).