Are Courts Slow? Exposing and Measuring the Invisible Determinants of Case Disposition Time

Abstract

This article analyses civil case disposition time by developing hypotheses to explain behavioral and structural determinants of so-called ‘delay’ and suggesting a novel methodology (‘Echronometrics’) to account for factors, operating at both macro and micro socio-economic levels, that influence the behavior and outputs of civil courts. Our proposed methodology includes more relevant variables, and specifies their interdependence, thus offering a more powerful explanatory tool for future empirical research to account for and measure the complex interactions of time and cost in civil trials.