Judicial Procedural Involvement (JPI): A Metric for Judges’ Role in Civil Litigation, Settlement, and Access to Justice

Ayelet Sela; Limor Gabay-Egozi

doi:10.1111/jols.12243

Judicial Procedural Involvement (JPI): A Metric for Judges’ Role in Civil Litigation, Settlement, and Access to Justice

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5 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examine judges’ role in civil litigation by studying empirically the relationship between judicial procedural involvement (JPI) and lawsuits’ mode of disposition (MoD). Furthermore, we propose JPI as a metric for the allocation of judicial attention to litigants. Applying the framework to Israeli trial court data, we find that 60 per cent of cases included JPI (through hearings and rulings on motions) whereas 40 per cent involved only the court's institutional function. By juxtaposing JPI and MoD data, we shed light on the scope of judicial involvement in settlements, the ratio between judges’ normative public-life function and their problem-solving function, and other pertinent questions. Since nowadays lawsuits are rarely adjudicated, trial rates are low, and litigants in person (pro se litigants) are common, we argue that access to justice should also be construed in terms of access to judicial attention throughout the proceeding, which is readily measurable through JPI.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	468-498
Number of pages	31
Journal	Journal of Law and Society
Volume	47
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12243
State	Published - 1 Sep 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author. Journal of Law and Society © 2020 Cardiff University Law School

Funding

This research was supported by the European Research Council Grant Number 647943. We thank the anonymous reviewers, Michal Alberstein, Lee Epstein, Roy Shapira, Dana Rosen, Keren Weinshall, Andrea Kupfer‐Schneider, Gali Aviv, Galit Ailon, and participants of the Chicago Law School Judicial Behavior Workshop and of the Second European Conference on Empirical Legal Studies for their comments on earlier drafts. Any errors are our own.

Funders	Funder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	647943
European Commission

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10.1111/jols.12243

Cite this

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abstract = "We examine judges{\textquoteright} role in civil litigation by studying empirically the relationship between judicial procedural involvement (JPI) and lawsuits{\textquoteright} mode of disposition (MoD). Furthermore, we propose JPI as a metric for the allocation of judicial attention to litigants. Applying the framework to Israeli trial court data, we find that 60 per cent of cases included JPI (through hearings and rulings on motions) whereas 40 per cent involved only the court's institutional function. By juxtaposing JPI and MoD data, we shed light on the scope of judicial involvement in settlements, the ratio between judges{\textquoteright} normative public-life function and their problem-solving function, and other pertinent questions. Since nowadays lawsuits are rarely adjudicated, trial rates are low, and litigants in person (pro se litigants) are common, we argue that access to justice should also be construed in terms of access to judicial attention throughout the proceeding, which is readily measurable through JPI.",

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Judicial Procedural Involvement (JPI): A Metric for Judges’ Role in Civil Litigation, Settlement, and Access to Justice

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