Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1996
Abstract
When plaintiffs cannot predict the outcome of litigation with certainty, neither the American rule (each litigant bears its own litigation expenses) nor the British rule (the losing litigant pays the attorneys' fees of the winning litigant) would induce optimal decisions to bring suit. Plaintiffs may bring frivolous suits when litigation costs are small relative to the amount at stake; plaintiffs may not bring meritorious suits when litigation costs are large relative to this amount. More general fee-shifting rules are based not only on the identity of the winning party but also on how strong the court perceives the case to be at the end of the trial (the "margin of victory"). We analyze when such a rule can induce plaintiffs to sue if and only if they believe their cases are sufficiently strong. We explore the implications of our analysis for the use of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11.
Keywords
Civil Procedure, Practice and Procedure, Litigation, Law and Economics
Publication Title
Journal of Legal Studies
Repository Citation
Chang, Howard F. and Bebchuk, Lucian A., "An Analysis of Fee Shifting Based on the Margin of Victory: On Frivolous Suints, Meritorious Suits, and the Role of Rule 11" (1996). All Faculty Scholarship. 969.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/969
Included in
Civil Law Commons, Civil Procedure Commons, Economic Policy Commons, Economic Theory Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Legal Theory Commons, Litigation Commons
Publication Citation
25 J. Legal Stud. 371 (1996).