Are Sequential Trials Really Better than Unitary Trials?

Moral hazard and agency relationship in sequential litigation

“…In the same way, the New York law encourages judges to separate liability and damages issues into sequential proceedings in any action for personal injury. More precisely, it presumptively assigns the determination of liability to the first stage and determination of damages to the second stage, unless the court orders otherwise (De Mot et al, 2013). 3 Overall, sequential trials are common in antitrust 1 We use the pronon 'she' to refer to the lawyer and 'he' to refer to the client.…”

“…Finally, interesting results are obtained when the costs of litigation are assumed to be a choice variable for the conflicting parties. De Mot et al (2013) analyze endogenous litigation expenditures, by using a rent-seeking model, and show that the optimal trial process (i.e. unitary or sequential) depends on the strength of the plaintiff's case.…”