Does the Type of Criminal Defense Counsel Affect Case Outcomes? A Natural Experiment in Taiwan

Huang, Kuo Chang; Chen, Kong-Pin; Lin, Chang Ching

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1119787

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous research has shown that the cases that are appealed are not representative of the initial trials (Eisenberg ) in civil cases and outcomes of criminal cases differ based on the type of defensive representation one has (Huang et al. ). Individuals who have more financial resources are expected to be able to mount a more substantial defense.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosecutor Elections, Mistakes, and Appeals

McCannon¹

2013

J Empirical Legal Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prosecutors under common‐law tradition exercise a significant amount of discretion in the criminal justice system. In the United States, the dominant form of accountability is that prosecutors must be reelected by the voters. Recent empirical work illustrates that election concerns open up the potential for distortion in the decision making of prosecutors. Specifically, it has been shown that prosecutors take more cases to trial and plea bargain less when running for reelection. Does this hawkish behavior of prosecutors lead to inaccuracies in the criminal justice system? A panel data set of appellate decisions in western New York is analyzed. It is shown that if the initial felony conviction takes place in the six months prior to a reelection and is appealed, the probability that the appellate court upholds the lower court's decision decreases by 5.1–7.1 percentage points. Additional investigation into the types of mistakes made is done. Thus, the popular election of prosecutors results in inaccurate sentences, wrongful convictions, and, consequently, successful appeals.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosecutor Elections, Mistakes, and Appeals

McCannon¹

2013

J Empirical Legal Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One recent innovation has involved using random assignment of lawyers to cases to eliminate potential confounding. Path-breaking work by Abrams and Yoon (2007) has rapidly been followed by other articles exploiting random assignment (Anderson and Heaton, 2011;Huang et al, 2010). This emphasis on the identification of causal effects is welcome, but awareness of potential confounding needs to go beyond the simple assertion that 'lawyers matter'.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lawyer rankings either do not matter for litigation outcomes or are redundant

Hanretty

2016

International Journal of the Legal Profession

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I investigate the success of litigants in tax cases in England and Wales between 1996 and 2010. I explore the effect upon success of having better-ranked legal representation, according to rankings of barristers published by Chambers. I find that, for a variety of model specifications, there is no significant positive effect of having better-ranked legal representation.After conducting a sensitivity analysis, I conclude that better-ranked legal representation might have a positive effect on litigation outcomes, but only if better-ranked lawyers receive cases that are substantially more difficult to win. However, if better-ranked lawyers receive substantially more difficult cases, this suggests consumers of legal representation are sophisticated enough to dispense with legal rankings.

show abstract

“…The concept of the rule of law has grown deeply rooted in the minds of Taiwanese people, as have the standards by which the law determines rights and obligations. Moreover, after 1999, Taiwan established an independent judicial system, with major reforms both in civil litigations (Huang 2009) and in the criminal justice system (Huang, Chen, & Lin 2010). Taiwan has become a legalized society, its judicial system having reached the levels of leading Western countries, at least from a lawyer's perspective (Eisenberg & Huang 2012;Huang 2008Huang , 2009Huang, Chen, & Lin 2010).…”

Section: The 2011 Taiwan Survey Legal Environments In Taiwanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Rich and Poor Behave Similarly in Seeking Legal Advice? Lessons from Taiwan in Comparative Perspective

Huang¹,

Lin²,

Chen³

2014

Law Soc Rev

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A central concern of access‐to‐justice studies is whether the socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals can obtain effective assistance in dealing with their legal problems. Using the newly collected data from the 2011 Taiwan Survey, this article examines Taiwanese people's advice‐seeking behavior in general and explores the effect of income in particular. This article finds that income had a significantly positive correlation with the likelihood of obtaining legal advice, but it has no impact on obtaining nonlegal advice. By contrast, education had little bearing on the decision to obtain legal advice, but it had a positive influence on seeking nonlegal advice. This article argues that although the gravity of problem was more influential than income on obtaining legal advice, the effect of income should not be easily dismissed. Moreover, the contrasting effect of education on obtaining nonlegal advice strongly suggests that its use was determined by people's knowledge of its existence and capability of accessing such service. To improve the disadvantaged's access to justice, care should be taken not only to increase publicly funded legal advice services but also to enhance the public's awareness of their availability.

show abstract

Does the Type of Criminal Defense Counsel Affect Case Outcomes? A Natural Experiment in Taiwan

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Prosecutor Elections, Mistakes, and Appeals

Prosecutor Elections, Mistakes, and Appeals

Lawyer rankings either do not matter for litigation outcomes or are redundant

Do Rich and Poor Behave Similarly in Seeking Legal Advice? Lessons from Taiwan in Comparative Perspective

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About