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Getting What We Asked For, Getting What We Paid For, and Not Liking What We Got: The Vanishing Civil Trial
Author(s) -
Yeazell Stephen C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of empirical legal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1740-1461
pISSN - 1740-1453
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2004.00027.x
Subject(s) - plaintiff , phenomenon , capital (architecture) , political science , economics , legal practice , business , public relations , law , geography , epistemology , archaeology , philosophy
The current rate of civil trials may result from two converging trends in civil practice: 20th‐century procedural reforms and associated changes in the organization and financing of legal practice. The procedural reforms required greater pretrial investigation of facts, which in turn often required litigants to make regular investments of substantial capital, access to which was facilitated by changes in the organization of plaintiffs’ practices. Together, these procedural reforms and changes in practice structure provide a plausible explanation for the observed phenomenon of declining rate and number of civil trials.