Lawyer rankings either do not matter for litigation outcomes or are redundant

Christopher Hanretty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

I investigate the success of litigants in tax cases in England and Wales between 1996 and 2010. I explore the effect upon success of having better-ranked legal representation, according to rankings of barristers published by Chambers. I find that, for a variety of model specifications, there is no significant positive effect of having better-ranked legal representation. After conducting a sensitivity analysis, I conclude that better-ranked legal representation might have a positive effect on litigation outcomes, but only if better-ranked lawyers receive cases that are substantially more difficult to win. However, if better-ranked lawyers receive substantially more difficult cases, this suggests consumers of legal representation are sophisticated enough to dispense with legal rankings.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-205
Number of pages21
JournalInternational Journal of the Legal Profession
Volume23
Issue number2
Early online date17 Mar 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

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