The impact of legal representation in Israeli traffic courts: Addressing selection bias and generalizability problems

Rabeea Assy and Tomer Carmel

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 2024, vol. 21, issue 3, 532-576

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of legal representation on the process and outcomes of legal proceedings, focusing on Israeli traffic courts dealing with simple traffic offenses. It finds that legal representation significantly increased defendants' prospects of obtaining plea bargains and of avoiding demerits points. However, legally represented defendants were also exposed to higher fines compared to self‐represented defendants. Since points are typically the primary concern for defendants, we contend that legal representation improved case outcomes, overall. Considering the simplicity of the process, the minimal legal expertise required, and the low stakes involved, the representation effect was unexpectedly robust. This effect may potentially be even stronger in more complex cases and where the stakes are higher. Unlike previous observational studies, this study reduces the risks associated with selection bias and produces findings that are more credible and potentially generalizable to other contexts.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12392

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:empleg:v:21:y:2024:i:3:p:532-576

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Empirical Legal Studies from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().