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How Do Cause Lawyers Decide When and Where to Litigate on behalf of Their Cause?
Author(s) -
Barclay Scott,
Chomsky Daniel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
law and society review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1540-5893
pISSN - 0023-9216
DOI - 10.1111/lasr.12093
Subject(s) - jurisdiction , cause of action , law , action (physics) , value (mathematics) , political science , compromise , law and economics , sociology , computer science , plaintiff , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning
In this article, we begin to respond to the deceptively simple question: How do cause lawyers decide when and where to litigate on behalf of their cause? We consider the choice of location and timing faced by cause lawyers when more than one jurisdiction evinces a suitable legal environment for pursuing litigation on their cause. To consider this choice, we use evidence from the timing and actions of cause lawyers in the marriage equality cases in the U nited S tates from J anuary 1990 through D ecember 2004. And, we show the value in utilizing methods that are relatively novel in cause lawyering research—statistical models—to consider the apparent commonalities, beyond a suitable legal environment, across locations and time periods that might prompt cause lawyers into action.