The Value of Counsel: 20 Years of Representation before a Public Housing Eviction Board

Abstract

Research into the effects of legal representation is rare because in many settings in which people might have lawyers, legal representation is either so common or so unusual that it cannot serve as a variable. Moreover, such research as exists is often poorly controlled or otherwise methodologically deficient. Our data set, derived from the case files of a public housing eviction board, allows us to overcome most of the difficulties that plague prior studies because it is relatively large and unusually rich in information about individual cases. We model the effects of various tenant and case characteristics on lawyer involvement as well as the effects of legal representation on case outcome. We find that lawyers tend to handle more difficult cases and that the likelihood that legal representation will aid a tenant depends on case type and changes over time. Our results, though likely to be context dependent, suggest how the effects of legal representation may be studied in other settings and the kinds of variables that may condition such effects.

Elements of Professional Expertise

“…1. Legal aid lawyers, salaried and providing services to their clients free of charge, are more likely to take cases when they believe the issue at hand is disputable (Monsma and Lempert 1992). I use it in a similar sense, but construe "ordinary" from the perspective of the public, meaning the typical kinds of court and court-like civil processes that people become involved in.…”

“…Substantive professional expertise is abstract and principled, whereas relational expertise is "situated" and "contextual" (Barley 1996:425, 429). The explicit curriculum of professional training-for example, constitutional law, anatomy, homiletics, or fluid dynamics-typically does not include this material; nevertheless, it can be essential for work's successful conduct (Barley 1996; for law specifically, see, e.g., Eisenstein and Jacob 1977;Feeley 1992;Kritzer 1998a;Monsma and Lempert 1992;Sullivan et al 2007;Szmer, Johnson, and Sarver 2007). The explicit curriculum of professional training-for example, constitutional law, anatomy, homiletics, or fluid dynamics-typically does not include this material; nevertheless, it can be essential for work's successful conduct (Barley 1996; for law specifically, see, e.g., Eisenstein and Jacob 1977;Feeley 1992;Kritzer 1998a;Monsma and Lempert 1992;Sullivan et al 2007;Szmer, Johnson, and Sarver 2007).…”

Do the “Haves” Still Come Out Ahead? Resource Inequalities in Ideological Courts: The Case of the Israeli High Court of Justice

“…Obviously, any attempt to test the validity of the party capability theory on the ground of a foreign system that the chances of the poor to succeed in litigation; see Adler and Bradley (1975); Lawrence (1990); Monsma and Lempert (1992). Obviously, any attempt to test the validity of the party capability theory on the ground of a foreign system that the chances of the poor to succeed in litigation; see Adler and Bradley (1975); Lawrence (1990); Monsma and Lempert (1992).…”

Cultural Differences and Discrimination: Samoans Before a Public Housing Eviction Board

“…In years when the caseload was more than 100 a random sample of 100 cases were coded on all variables, and all cases were coded on a subset of these variables. For a detailed discussion of how we built our models, see Monsma and Lempert (1992). 43 6.The weight variable varies across years and has a higher value for years in which the saunple is a proportion of the total caseload for that year.…”