Getting What We Asked For, Getting What We Paid For, and Not Liking What We Got: The Vanishing Civil Trial

The current dearth of civil trials may result from two converging trends in civil practice: twentieth-century procedural reforms and associated changes in the organization and financing of legal practice. The procedural reforms required greater pre-trial investigation of facts. Pre-trial investigation often required litigants to make regular investments of substantial capital, access to which was facilitated by changes in the organization of plaintiffs’ practices. Together, these procedural reforms and changes in practice structure provide a plausible explanation for the observed phenomenon of declining rate and number of civil trials.