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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Visible Trial: Judicial Assessment As Adjudication, Tracey E. George, Albert H. Yoon
The Visible Trial: Judicial Assessment As Adjudication, Tracey E. George, Albert H. Yoon
University of Colorado Law Review
Only a small fraction of lawsuits ends in trial—a phenomenon termed the “vanishing trial.” Critics of the declining trial rate see a remote, increasingly regressive judicial system. Defenders see a system that allows parties to resolve disputes independently. Analyzing criminal and civil filings in federal district court for the forty-year period from 1980 to 2019, we confirm a steady decline in the absolute and relative number of trials. We find, however, this emphasis on trial rate obscures courts’ vital role and ignores parties’ goals. Judges adjudicate disputes directly by ruling or effectively through other assessments of the parties’ cases. Even …
Producing Procedural Inequality Through The Empirical Turn, Danya Shocair Reda
Producing Procedural Inequality Through The Empirical Turn, Danya Shocair Reda
University of Colorado Law Review
Procedural rulemaking and scholarship have taken an empirical turn in the past three decades. This empirical turn reflects a surprising consensus in what is otherwise a highly divided field and an inherently adversarial system. Because procedural rules distribute legal power in society, they invariably raise questions about who should have access to courts, information, and the means to defend one's legal rights. While debate rages about these normative commitments, procedure has developed a surprising epistemic agreement on empiricism, with its promise of rising above these competing interests with data. In procedure, the turn toward empiricism has become a strategy for …