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Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1996

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DOI
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02883.v4
Version
v4
Resource Type
Dataset : event/transaction data
Creator
  • United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics
Other Title
  • Version 4 (Subtitle)
Collective Title
  • Civil Justice Survey of State Courts: [United States] Series
Publication Date
2000-09-18
Funding Reference
  • United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics
Language
English
Free Keywords
case processing; civil courts; civil law; court cases; court system; disposition (legal); lawsuits; state courts
Description

  • Abstract

    In 1996, the Bureau of Justice Statistics awarded a grant to the National Center for State Courts to gather detailed information on tort, contract, and real property rights trial cases in 45 jurisdictions chosen to represent the 75 most populous counties in the nation. The result is this survey, which is a systematic examination of civil trial cases disposed in state general jurisdiction courts. The study expands the 1992 civil jury study, CIVIL JUSTICE SURVEY OF STATE COURTS, 1992 (ICPSR 6587), by specifically sampling bench and jury trial cases. Information gathered includes the type of case, the presence of legal representation, the type of litigation, the amount of compensatory damages awarded, the amount of punitive damages awarded, and case processing time.

  • Methods

    ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..

  • Table of Contents

    Datasets:

    • DS0: Study-Level Files
    • DS1: Main Data File for Part 1
    • DS2: FPC Factor for Wesvar PC Variance Estimation
    • DS3: JKN Factor for Wesvar PC Variance Estimation
Temporal Coverage
  • Time period: 1996
  • 1997-04 / 1998-09
    Collection date: 1997-04--1998-09
Geographic Coverage
  • United States
Sampled Universe
Tort, contract, and real property cases in the 75 most populous counties in the United States.
Sampling
A two-stage stratified sample was drawn, with 45 of the 75 most populous counties selected at the first stage. The top 75 counties account for about 37 percent of the United States population and about half of all civil filings. The sample consisted of tort, contract, and real property rights cases disposed by trial between January and December 1996. For each sampled case, a standard coding form was manually completed by court staff on-site to record information about litigants, case type, processing time, and award amounts.
Collection Mode

  • The data collection contains 100 replicate weight variables (REPWT1 to REPWT100) appropriate for calculating sampling errors using the Wesvar PC variance estimation program, plus two variables, VARSTRAT and VARUNIT, that were developed as part of the processing for creating the replicate weights. The replicate weights were created by the jackknife method and the user must specify the JKN variance estimation procedure when using Wesvar PC. The JKN variance estimation procedure will not work correctly unless two factor files are attached to the Wesvar file. Users should download da2883.p2 and da2883.p3, change the file names to fpc96.txt and jknf96.txt, and attach both files to the Wesvar data file. In addition, the degrees of freedom should be set at 81 in Wesvar (100 replicate weights, 19 varstrat units) in order to calculate the correct confidence intervals.

Note
2011-11-02 All parts are being moved to restricted access and will be available only using the restricted access procedures.2004-06-10 The principal investigator revised the replicate weights so that they would more accurately reflect county stratifications. The principal investigator also added a few variables that (1) take inflation into account when calculating the damage awards, and (2) better identify the trial cases. Corresponding changes were made to the SAS and SPSS data definition statements and the codebook.2001-03-15 Additional documentation has been added to the codebook by the principal investigator.2001-03-15 Additional documentation has been added to the codebook by the principal investigator.2000-10-16 The data were revised to change software-specific system missing characters to blanks, and corresponding changes were made to the SAS and SPSS data definition statements and the codebook. Funding insitution(s): United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Availability
Download
One or more files in this study are not available for download due to special restrictions; consult the study documentation to learn more on how to obtain the data.
Alternative Identifiers
  • 2883 (Type: ICPSR Study Number)
Relations
  • Is new version of
    DOI: 10.3886/ICPSR02883.v3
Publications
  • Eisenberg, Theodore. The empirical effects of tort reform. Research Handbook on the Economics of Torts.Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 2013.
  • Lim, Claire S. H.. Media influence on courts: Evidence from civil case adjudication. . 2012.
    • ID: http://www.economics.cornell.edu/csl228/civilpaper.pdf (URL)
  • Wentland, Scott. Political beliefs and tort awards: Evidence of rationally political jurors from two data sets. Review of Law and Economics.8, (3), 619-656.2012.
    • ID: 10.1515/1555-5879.1514 (DOI)
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, Heise, Michael. Judge-jury difference in punitive damages awards: Who listens to the Supreme Court?. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.8, (2), 325-357.2011.
    • ID: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2011.01211.x (DOI)
  • Eisenberg, Theodore. The need for a national civil justice survey of incidence and claiming behavior. Fordham Urban Law Journal.37, (1), 17-36.2010.
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, Heise, Michael, Waters, Nicole, Wells, Martin T.. The decision to award punitive damages: An empirical study. Journal of Legal Analysis.2, (2), 577-620.2010.
    • ID: 10.1093/jla/2.2.577 (DOI)
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, Heise, Michael, Wells, Martin T.. Variability in punitive damages: Empirically assessing Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics.166, (1), 5-26.2010.
    • ID: 10.1628/093245610790711555 (DOI)
  • Hersch, Joni, Viscusi, W. Kip. Punitive damages by numbers: Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker. Supreme Court Economic Review.18, (1), 259-280.2010.
    • ID: 10.1086/659989 (DOI)
  • Moog, Robert. Piercing the veil of statewide data: The case of vanishing trials in North Carolina. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.6, (1), 147-176.2009.
    • ID: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2009.01140.x (DOI)
  • Wentland, Scott A.. An Economic Analysis of Political Beliefs in Tort and Criminal Law. Dissertation, George Mason University. 2009.
  • Cohen, Thomas H.. General civil jury trial litigation in state and federal courts: A statistical portrait. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.5, (3), 593-617.2008.
    • ID: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00134.x (DOI)
  • Cohen, Thomas H.. Do Federal and State Courts Differ in How They Handle Civil Trial Litigation: A Portrait of Civil Trials in State and Federal District Courts. 2nd Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper, . 2006.
  • Eisenberg, Theodore. Use it or pretenders will abuse it: The importance of archival legal information. UMKC Law Review.75, (1), 1-24.2006.
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, Hannaford-Agor, Paula L., Heise, Michael, LaFountain, Neil, Munsterman, G. Thomas, Ostrom, Brian, Wells, Martin T.. Juries, judges, and punitive damages: Empirical analyses using the Civil Justice Survey of State Courts 1992, 1996, and 2001 data. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.3, (2), 263-295.2006.
    • ID: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2006.00070.x (DOI)
  • Schlanger, Margo. What we know and what we should know about American trial trends. Journal of Dispute Resolution.352006.
  • Cohen, Thomas H.. Contract Trials and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001. Selected Findings.NCJ 207388, Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2005.
    • ID: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ctvlc01.pdf (URL)
  • Helland, Eric, Klick, Jonathan, Tabarrok, Alexander. Data watch: Tort-uring the data. Journal of Economic Perspectives.19, (2), 207-220.2005.
  • Sharkey, Catherine M.. Unintended consequences of medical malpractice damages caps. New York University Law Review.80, 391-512.2005.
  • Cohen, Thomas H.. Medical Malpractice Trials and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001. Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 2001.NCJ 203098, Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. 2004.
    • ID: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/mmtvlc01.pdf (URL)
  • Hersch, Joni, Viscusi, W. Kip. Punitive damages: How judges and juries perform. Journal of Legal Studies.33, (1), 1-36.2004.
    • ID: 10.1086/380412 (DOI)
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, Hill, Elizabeth. Employment Arbitration and Litigation: An Empirical Comparison. Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series.65, New York, NY: New York University School of Law. 2003.
  • Eisenberg, Theodore, LaFountain, Neil, Ostrom, Brian, Rottman, David, Wells, Martin T.. Juries, judges, and punitive damages: An empirical study. Cornell Law Review.87, 743-782.2002.
    • ID: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub/372/ (URL)
  • Gifford, Lea S., DeFrances, Carol J., Litras, Marika F.X.. Contract Trials and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996. NCJ 179451, United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000.
    • ID: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ctvlc96.pdf (URL)
  • Litras, Marika F.X., Gifford, Sidra Lea, DeFrances, Carol J., Rottman, David B., LaFountain, Neil, Ostrom, Brian J.. Tort Trials and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996. Bulletin.NCJ 179769, United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000.
    • ID: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ttvlc96.pdf (URL)
  • DeFrances, Carol J., Litras, Marika F.X.. Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996. NCJ 173426, United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1999.
    • ID: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ctcvlc96.pdf (URL)

Update Metadata: 2015-08-05 | Issue Number: 6 | Registration Date: 2015-06-15

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United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics (2000): Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1996. Version 4. Civil Justice Survey of State Courts: [United States] Series. Version: v4. ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02883.v4