The Effect of Fee Shifting on Litigation: Evidence from a Court Reform in the UK

Résumé

We study a U.K. court reform that established a cap on the amount of costs that a successful litigant may recover in a case litigated in the Patents County Court (PCC). We first build a model to study the mechanisms that determine the impact of a costs cap on the number of cases filed and the settlement rate. We then perform an empirical analysis taking advantage of the existence of another court that was not affected by the reform. We find that the costs cap increased the number of cases filed and decreased the settlement rate.

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Référence

Christian Helmers, Yassine Lefouili, Brian Love et Luke McDonagh, « The Effect of Fee Shifting on Litigation: Evidence from a Court Reform in the UK », TSE Working Paper, n° 16-740, décembre 2016, révision septembre 2017.