Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T07:05:47.452Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Turning on Those Who Turn to the Courts: Experimental Evidence of Backlash Against Personal Injury Litigants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2023

Jeb Barnes ,
Elli Menounou Open the ORCID record for Elli Menounou [Opens in a new window]  and
Parker Hevron
Jeb Barnes
Affiliation:
University of Southern California, Department of Political Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Elli Menounou
Affiliation:
California State Polytechnic University, Department of Political Science, Pomona, CA, USA
Parker Hevron*
Affiliation:
Texas Woman’s University, Department of Social Sciences & Historical Studies, Denton, TX, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: phevron@twu.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Do people turn on those who turn to the courts? Using a survey experiment, we find people have significantly more negative attitudes toward personal injury litigants than other types of claimants, even when they believe the claimant is injured and mostly not at fault. Moreover, our subjects were not anti-claim, anti-hiring a lawyer, or even anti-government program. Instead, they were distinctively anti-litigant.

Keywords

LitigationExperimentsTort
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 2024 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albiston, Catherine R., Edelman, Lauren, and Milligan, Joy. 2014. “The Dispute Tree and the Legal Forest.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10 (1): 105–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailis, Daniel, and MacCoun, Robert. 1996. “Estimating Risks with the Media as Your Guide: A Content Analysis of Media Coverage of Tort Litigation.” Law & Human Behavior (20): 419–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Jeb. 2011. Dust-Up: Asbestos Litigation and the Failure of Commonsense Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, Jeb, and Burke, Thomas F.. 2015. How Policy Makes Politics: Rights, Courts, Litigation and the Struggle Over Injury Compensation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, Jeb, and Hevron, Parker R.. 2018. “Framed? Judicialization and the Risk of Negative Episodic Media Coverage.” Law & Social Inquiry 43 (3): 1059–1091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Jeb, and Parker, R. 2023. “The Ethics of Tort Tales: What Should Lawyers Do When Media Gets It Wrong?” Tulsa Law Review.Google Scholar
Bartels, Brandon, and Mutz, Diana C.. 2009. “Explaining Process of Institutional Opinion Leadership.” Journal of Politics 71 (1): 249–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, W. Lance. 2015. “An Introduction to Journalism Norms and Representations of Politics.” Political Communication 13 (4): 373–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., Margolis, Michele F., and Sances, Michael W.. 2014. “Separating the Shirkers from the Workers? Making Sure Respondents Pay Attention on Self-Administered Surveys.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (3): 739–753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, Adam J., Margolis, Michele F., Sances, Michael W., and Warshaw, Christopher. 2019. “Using Screeners to Measure Respondent Attention on Self-Administered Surveys: Which Items and How Many?” Political Science Research and Methods 9 (2): 430–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishin, Benjamin G., Hayes, Thomas J., Incantalupo, Matthew B., and Smith, Charles Anthony. 2016. “Opinion Backlash and Public Attitudes: Are Political Attitudes in Gay Rights Counterproductive?” American Journal of Political Science 60 (3): 625–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, Donald, and Baumgartner, M. P.. 1987. “On Self-Help in Modern Society.” Dialectical Anthropology 12 (1): 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boas, Taylor C., Christenson, Dino P., and Glick, David M.. 2020. “Recruiting Large Online Samples in the United States and India: Facebook, Mechanical Turk, and Qualtrics.” Political Science Research and Methods 8 (2): 232–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, Troyen A., Leape, Lucian L., Laird, Nan M., Liesi Hebert, A. Russell Localio, Lawthers, Ann G., Newhouse, Joseph P., Weiler, Paul C., and Hiatt, Howard H.. 1991. “Incidence of Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients – Results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study I.” New England Journal of Medicine 324: 370–376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burke, Thomas. 2002. Lawyers, Lawsuits and Legal Rights: The Struggle Over Litigation in American Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Burke, Thomas F., and Barnes, Jeb. 2018. “Layering, Kludgeocracy and Disability Rights: The Limited Influence of the Social Model in American Disability Policy.” Social Policy & Society 17 (1): 101–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burbank, Steven, and Farhang, Sean. 2016. Rights and Retrenchment: The Counterrevolution against Federal Litigation. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Andrea L. 2012. “Policy Makes Mass Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 15: 333–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chong, Dennis, and Druckman, James N.. 2007. “Framing Theory.” Annual Review of Political Science 10: 103–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clawson, Rosalee, Kegler, Elizabeth R., Waltenburg, Eric. 2001. “The Legitimacy-Conferring Authority of the U.S. Supreme Court: An Experimental Design.” American Politics Research 29 (6): 566–591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, David. 2011. “Understanding Process Tracing.” PS: Political Science and Politics 44 (4): 823–830.Google Scholar
Daniels, Stephen, and Martin, Joanne. 2015. Tort Reform, Plaintiffs’ Lawyers, and Access to Justice. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derthick, Martha. 2012. Up in Smoke: From Legislation to Litigation in Tobacco Politics (3 rd Ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunning, Thad. 2012. Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences: A Design-Based Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Phillip. 2015. “LBGT Leaders Warn of Looming Gay Rights Backlash.” Time, November 20, 2015. https://time.com/4123059/gay-rights-marriage-backlash.Google Scholar
Engel, David M. 1984. “The Oven Bird’s Song: Insiders, Outsiders and Personal injuries in an American Community.” Law & Society Review 18 (4): 551–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, David M. 2012. “Lumping as Default in Tort Cases: The Cultural Interpretation of Injury and Causation,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 43: 33–68.Google Scholar
Entman, Robert. 1993. “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.” Political Behavior 30: 51–58.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles R. 2009. Making Rights Real: Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm, and Rubin, Edward L.. 1998. Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America’s Prisons. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Flores, Andrew R., and Barclay, Scott. 2016. “Backlash, Consensus, Legitimacy, or Polarization: The Effect of Same-Sex Marriage Policy on Mass Attitudes.” Political Research Quarterly 69 (1): 43–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fontana, David, and Braman, Donald. 2012. “Judicial Backlash or Just Backlash? Evidence from a National Experiment.” Columbia Law Review 112 (4): 731–799.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence. 2019. A History of American Law (4th Edition). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, Steven, and Bower, Anthony. 1999. “Newspaper Coverage of Automotive Product Liability Verdicts.” Law & Society Review 33: 93–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gash, Alison. 2015. Below the Radar: How Silence Can Save Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gash, Alison, and Gonzales, Angelo. 2008. “School prayer.” In Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy, edited by Persily, N., Citrin, J., and Egan, P.J., 62–79. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gash, Alison, and Murakami, Michael H.. 2015. “Venue Effects: How State Policy Source Influences Policy Support.” Politics & Policy 43 (5): 679–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 1989. “Understandings of Justice: Institutional Legitimacy, Procedural Justice, and Political Tolerance.” Law and Society Review 23 (3): 469–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., Caldeira, Gregory A., and Spence, Lester Kenyatta. 2005. “Why Do People Accept Public Policies They Oppose? Testing Legitimacy Theory with a Survey-Based Experiment.” Political Research Quarterly 58 (2): 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluck, Abbe R., Hall, Ashley, and Curfman, Gregory. 2018. “Civil Litigation and the Opioid Epidemic: The Role of Courts in a National Health Crisis.” Opioids, Law & Ethics 46: 351–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grove, Tara Leigh. 2019. “The Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Dilemma.” Harvard Law Review 132: 2240–2276.Google Scholar
Haltom, William, and McCann, Michael W.. 2004. Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanley, John, Salamone, Michael, and Wright, Matthew. 2012. “Reviving the Schoolmaster: Reevaluating Public Opinion in the Wake of Roe v. Wade.” Political Research Quarterly 65 (2): 408–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hans, Valerie. 2000. Business on Trial: The Civil Jury and Corporate Responsibility. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hevron, Parker R. 2018. “Judicialization and Its Effects: Experiments as a Way Forward.” Laws 7 (2): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, Daniel. 1977. The Courts and Social Policy. New York: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, Robert. 1993. Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hussain, Amjad. 2020. “COVD-19: Navigating the New Norm.” The National Law Review X: 211–230.Google Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto. 1991. “Framing Responsibility for Political Issues: The Case of Poverty.” Political Behavior 12 (1): 19–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos. 1979. “Prospect Theory: Analysis of Decision Under Risk.” Econometrica 47: 263–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos. 1984. “Choices, Values, and Frames.” American Psychologist 39: 341–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, Robert A. 2019. Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Keck, Thomas M. 2009. “Beyond Backlash: Assessing the Impact of Judicial Decisions on LGBT Rights.” Law & Society Review 43 (1): 151–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klarman, Michael J. 1994. “How Brown Changed Race Relations: The Backlash Thesis.” The Journal of American History 81 (1): 81–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klarman, Michael J. 2004. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klarman, Michael J. 2012. From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Bert. 2011. “The Antecedents of Disputes: Complaining and Claiming.” Oñati Legal Series 1 (6): 2–31.Google Scholar
Le, L., and Citrin, Jack. 2008. “Affirmative action.” In Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy, edited by Persily, N., Citrin, J., and Egan, P.J., 211–240. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Linos, Katerina, and Twist, Kimberly. 2017. “The Supreme Court, the Media, and Public Opinion: Comparing Experimental and Observational Methods.” Journal of Legal Studies 45 (2): 1–49.Google Scholar
MacCoun, Robert J. 2006. “Media Reporting of Jury Verdicts: Is the Tail (of the Distribution) Wagging the Dog?” DePaul Law Review 55: 539–562.Google Scholar
Malhotra, Neil. 2015. “An Empirical Analysis of “Tort Tales.” Journal of Law and Courts 3 (1): 149–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Thomas. 1987. “The Supreme Court as an Opinion Leader.” American Politics Quarterly 15: 147–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCann, Michael. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael, and Haltom, William. 2004. “Framing the Food Fights: How Mass Media Constructs and Constricts Public Interest Litigation.” Center for the Study of Law and Society Speaker Series, UC Berkeley.Google Scholar
Melnick, Shep. 1994. Between the Lines: Interpreting Welfare Rights. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Mettler, Suzanne. 2011. The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mettler, Suzanne, and Soss, Joe. 2004. “The Consequences of Public Policy for Democratic Citizenship: Bridging Policy Studies and Mass Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 2 (1): 55–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Richard, and Sarat, Austin. 1980. “Grievances, Claims, and Disputes: Assessing the Adversary Culture.” Law & Society Review 15 (3): 525–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mnookin, Robert H., and Kornhauser, Lewis. 1979. “Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: The Case of Divorce.” The Yale Law Journal 88 (5): 950–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondak, Jeffery J. 1992. “Institutional Legitimacy, Policy Legitimacy, and the Supreme Court.” American Politics Research 20 (4): 457–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Jacob M., Nyhan, Brendan, and Torres, Michelle. 2018. “How Conditioning on Post-Treatment Variables Can Ruin Your Experiment and What to Do About It.” American Journal of Political Science 62 (3): 760–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagareda, Richard A. 2007. Mass Torts in an Age of Settlement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neustadt, Richard. 1990. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth, and Nelson, Robert L.. 2005. “Scaling the pyramid: A sociolegal model of employment discrimination litigation.” In The Handbook of Research on Employment Discrimination: Rights and Realities, edited by Nielsen, L. B. and Nelson, R. L., 3–34. New York: Spring.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 1993. “When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change.” World Politics 45: 595–628.10.2307/2950710CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, Robert, and Siegel, Reva. 2007. “Roe Rage: Democratic Constitutionalism and Backlash.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review (2007): 1–66.Google Scholar
Povich, Elaine S. 2021, July 21. “States Braced for a Wave of COVID Lawsuits. It Never Arrived.” Pew Stateline. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/07/21/states-braced-for-a-wave-of-covid-lawsuits-it-never-arrived.Google Scholar
Price, Richard S., and Keck, Thomas M.. 2015. “Movement Litigation and Unilateral Disarmament: Abortion and the Right to Die.” Law and Social Inquiry 40 (4): 880–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald. 2008. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? (2 nd Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheufele, Dietram. 1999. “Framing as a Theory of Media Effects.” Journal of Communication 49: 103–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staszak, Sara. 2015. No Day in Court: Access to Justice and the Politics of Judicial Retrenchment. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugarman, Stephen D. 1989. Doing Away with Personal Injury Law: New Compensation Mechanisms for Victims, Consumers, and Business. New York: Quorum Books.Google Scholar
Tankard, Margaret E., and Paluck, Elizabeth Levy. 2017. “The Effect of a Supreme Court Decision Regarding Gay Marriage on Social Norms and Personal Attitudes.” Psychological Science 28 (9): 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyler, Tom. 2003. “Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and the Effective Rule of Law, Crime and Law 30(2): 283–357.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom. 2006. Why People Obey the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom. 2019. “Evaluating Consensual Models of Governance. Nomos 61: 257–292.Google Scholar
Woodson, Benjamin. 2019. “The Causes of the Legitimacy-Conferring and Republican Schoolmaster Capabilities of the Courts.” Journal of Law and Courts 7 (2): 281–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States v. Windsor . Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-307.Google Scholar
United States Courts. 2022. “Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics 2022.” https://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/federal-judicial-caseload-statistics-2022.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Barnes et al. supplementary material

Barnes et al. supplementary material

Download Barnes et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 174.5 KB