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Since 1957, New York courts have required contingent fee lawyers to file 'closing statements' that disclose settlement amounts, lawyers' fees, an accounting of expenses, and other information. This Article provides a preliminary analysis of these data for the period 2004-2013. Among this Article's findings are that settlement rates in New York state courts are very high (84%) relative to previous studies; that very few cases are resolved by dispositive motions; that litigated cases and settled cases have almost exactly the same average recovery; that median litigation expenses, other than attorney's fees, are 3% of gross recovery; that claims are disproportionately from poor neighborhoods; and that attorneys' fees are almost always one-third of net recovery, which is the maximum allowed by law., INTRODUCTION 1972 I. RETAINER AND CLOSING STATEMENTS 1972 II. SETTLEMENT RATES 1981 III. AMOUNTS RECOVERED 1985 IV. FEES AND EXPENSES 1988 V. THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF TORT CLAIMS 1989 CONCLUSION 1992 [...]

We examine the quasi-randomization of alcohol consumption created by state-level alcohol prohibition laws passed in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. Using a large dataset of World War II enlistees, we exploit the differential timing of these laws to examine their effects on adult educational attainment, obesity, and height. We find statistically significant effects for education and obesity that do not appear to be the result of pre-existing trends. Our findings add to the growing body of economic studies that examine the long-run impacts of in utero and childhood environmental conditions. (JEL I18, D10, N41, N42), 'John P. Lennon, treasurer of the American Federation of Labor, says that seventy percent of the drink bill of the United States is contributed by the American laboring man ... [...]

How much should judges be paid? We first survey the considerable history of the debate and identify the implicit causal claims made about the effect of judicial pay. We find that claims about the effect of pay on the composition and quality of the judiciary have remained remarkably similar over the past two hundred years. In contrast, claims about the effect of pay on judicial independence have changed as the meaning of judicial independence itself has shifted We take advantage of the large variation in real salaries and opportunity costs for state appellate court judges across states from 1977 to 2007 to empirically test these claims. We find that judicial salaries have a small but significant effect on the likelihood of exit and thus the length of judicial tenure, and a small effect on the background of judges that join the appellate bench. A more limited analysis of California trial court judges finds far more sensitivity to pay, however, suggesting that trial and appellate court judges may behave differently., INTRODUCTION I. BACKGROUND ON THE DEBATE ON JUDICIAL PAY A. Judicial Pay Affects the Composition of the Bench B. Other Common Law Countries C. Judicial Pay Affects Judicial Independence D. [...]

Free lunches are hard to turn down for a city staring into the fiscal abyss. As it faces dwindling revenues and the increased demand for public services that usually accompanies [...]

Data sources for research on torts are presented.

The judicial models that use toxic release inventory (TRI) are tested to verify whether the judicial policies toward companies that pollute the environment are severe or not. The results suggest that factories that border other states have high emissions thus a staying consistent with the hypothesis that jurisdictional considerations are an important determinant of pollution incidence.

The authors show that regulated environmental cleanup does indeed become a barrier to entry of new firms.

The article examines the link between municipal zoning and overall land values. Findings indicate that under zoning, property suitable for commercial use experiences a value decline, while property suitable for residential use experiences a value gain.

Byline: Eric Helland (1) Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of the EPA's litigation strategy between 1977 and 1996 focusing on the tenure of Ann Gorsuch. Two hypotheses about this period are tested: (1) that changes in the EPA's litigation strategy were in fact an effort to reduce the expected penalty for violating environmental laws or (2) that the changes made in litigation strategy were consistent with efforts to reduce transaction cost. Contrary to previous research, I find no conclusive evidence of an overall shift toward business interests in EPA prosecutions. There is, however, clear evidence of shifts in the EPA's litigation strategy across administrations. Author Affiliation: (1) Claremont McKenna College, Department of Economics, 500 E. 9th Street, Claremont, CA, 91711 Article History: Registration Date: 03/10/2004

The issue of bias against out-of-state defendants in legal cases and the size of awards against these defendants is examined, with focus on the effect of different methods of judicial selection on the outcomes of cases.

The sufficient enforcement of the Clean Water Act in state EPAs is made difficult by political and budgetary constraints. Moreover, the lack of resources among state EPAs affect the frequency of inspection of mills. State agencies tend to adopt routine inspections to monitor problems of particular mills when financial resources are inadequate. Inspection of particular mills is determined by factors, such as health of the mill and the local economy.

This paper examines the consequences of the delegation of regulatory authority to local officials. The study evaluates three hypotheses of the role delegation plays in the implementation of regulatory policy: (1) the federal case, which predicts that delegation has no effect, (2) the state/local model predicts that delegation is, in fact, abdication, and (3) the full impact model predicts that both interests determine how environmental policy is implemented. The results provide evidence that while delegation does not completely remove national policy maker's ability to alter regulatory policy, it does allow local interests to alter national standards., I. INTRODUCTION Federal regulatory programs, from occupational safety to protection of the environment, are implemented jointly by national and state agencies. More broadly, almost all regulatory programs involve some delegation [...]

* Are Predatory Commitments Credible? Who Should the Courts Believe? By John R. Lott Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp. 168. $29.00 cloth. In the 1960s and 1970s, [...]

Recent growth in Medicaid spending has forced states to look for ways to slow the program's rate of growth. Under the Medicaid program's rules, state governments must submit a waiver to the federal government in order to implement a cost-saving program. The time required to process a waiver varies from 14 days to over three years. This study examines the determinants of the time it takes to process a waiver and the number of revisions required before final approval. The results indicate that an increase in the tenure of the state's delegation to the House oversight committee reduces the time to approval for Freedom of Choice waivers. However, more liberal committee members appear to delay waivers. The results complement the existing literature on the pork barrel by showing that seniority on a committee is an important determinant - not only of monetary benefits but also of nonmonetary benefits., I. INTRODUCTION Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, is now the fastest growing segment of state budgets. Its explosive growth has forced cutbacks in many other state [...]