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102 Wash. Univ. L. Rev. Online 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/wshuvylw102 and id is 1 raw text is: Washington University Law Review Online VOLUME 102 2024 CONTINGENT FEES AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE ERIC HELLAND* AND DANIEL KLERMAN** ABSTRACT Using a unique datasetfrom New York City, this article shows that contingent fees seem to have, at least partly, solved the access-to-justice problem in tort litigation. People in poorer zip codes, in fact, make legal claims at a higher rate than those in wealthier areas. This greater propensity to seek and achieve legal redress is partly explained by the fact that poor people are more likely to be injured. In addition, the disparity between rich andpoor manifests itself solely in smaller claims. For larger claims, rich and poor make claims at roughly the same rate. African Americans and Hispanics also make claims at a higher rate than whites, and this difference also attenuates when one controlsfor accident rates or focuses on larger claims. * William F. Podlich Professor of Economics, Claremont McKenna College and Senior Economist, RAND. ** Edward G. Lewis Professor of Law and History, University of Southern California Law School. The authors thank John Donohue, Lee Epstein, Jeffrey Fagan, Michael Frakes, James Greiner, Jordan Neyland, Chris Robertson, Seth Seabury, Tara Sklar, George Vojta, and participants at Academia Sinica Center for Institutional and Behavior Studies workshop, Sichuan University law lecture, Brooklyn Law School Faculty Workshop, Notre Dame Law School Faculty Workshop, USC Center for Law & Social Science (CLASS) workshop, 2018 Civil Procedure Workshop, American Law and Economics Association 2018 Annual meeting, and the 2018 University of Arizona Law School QuantLaw conference for helpful comments and suggestions. 1

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