The duration of personal injury litigation

Abstract

This paper examines and tests the implications of the court congestion hypothesis of Posner (1972) and Priest (1989). This hypothesis suggests that the effects of delay reduction programs may be largely or completely offset by a resulting increase in demand for litigation. We also analyze the effect on the pace of litigation of certain factors not explicitly considered by the Posner-Priest model.

We find that a delay reduction program was successful in reducing the time to settlement, and the time to verdict for tried cases, over the period covered by the data. As for behavioral responses, there is no evidence of an increase in the trial rate; there is, however, strong evidence of an increase in the number of cases filed annually in the court in question. Other results are consistent with the model's predictions about the effects of the prejudgment rate of interest.

Citation

Spurr, S.J. (2000), "The duration of personal injury litigation", Research in Law and Economics (Research in Law and Economics, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 223-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-5895(00)19006-2