Lawyers Seeking Clients, Clients Seeking Lawyers: Sources of Contingency Fee Cases And Their Implications for Case Handling

“It’s Darwinism – Survival of the Fittest:” How Markets and Reputations Shape the Ways in Which Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Obtain Clients

“…One younger, Houston lawyer (not an interviewee) has an extensive website through which he is trying, among other things, to attract Phen-Fen cases, which he will probably refer to someone else. 16 For all of the controversy generated, and the money lawyers spend on appealing directly to consumers for business, these tactics are not a major source of clients for most lawyers (see Kritzer & Krishnan 1998). Only ten lawyers report getting over 50 percent of their clients from direct marketing.…”

Relational Embeddedness and Socially Motivated Case Screening in the Practice of Law in Rural China

“…Motivated by self-interest, lawyers tend to conduct case screening on a rational, costeffective basis and seek out cases with high fee potential. This intentional pursuit of potentially lucrative business is particularly prevalent among lawyers in private practice (Helland and Tabarrok 2003;Johnson Jr. 1980-81;Kritzer 1984Kritzer , 1987Kritzer , 1997Kritzer , 1998Kritzer , 2001Kritzer and Krishnan 1999;Kritzer et al 1985;Van Hoy 1995. Economic incentives, however, are rarely unbounded in legal practice.…”

“…Economic incentives, however, are rarely unbounded in legal practice. Rather, they are often mediated by sociocultural factors, such as lawyers' sense of responsibility, reputational concerns, desire for professional challenges, political ideologies, and so on (Daniels and Martin 1999;Kim 2009a;Kritzer and Krishnan 1999;Menkel-Meadow and Meadow 1983;Van Hoy 1995Trautner 2011).…”

Tort Reform and Access to Justice: How Legal Environments Shape Lawyers’ Case Selection

“…Indeed, because they work on a contingency basis, lawyers must be careful about which cases they accept. Nearly all the previous findings on lawyers' selection of cases suggest that lawyers make decisions according to a risk/return formula, following the rational choice model set forth by neoclassical economics (Kritzer and Krishnan 1999). In this approach, the probabilities of winning a case and its likely payoff are calculated and compared to the time it will take to prepare the case and shepherd it through either settlement or trial verdict.…”

“…While the plaintiff's injuries are often apparent at the outset, the underlying facts of the case are frequently unclear and require extensive investigation. Previous research suggests that personal injury lawyers select cases based on a relatively simple risk/return formula in which lawyers pursue cases that offer potentially high returns with few risks and decline cases with either low returns or high risks (Kritzer 2004;Kritzer and Krishnan 1999). This assessment is necessary, scholars point out, because lawyers work on a contingency basis, which means they are only paid and reimbursed for their expenses if they win a case.…”