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The Small Claims Court: A Reconceptualization of Disputes and an Empirical Investigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Neil Vidmar
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Abstract

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In this paper disputes are seen as varying along a dimension of admitted liability, that is, the extent to which defendants admit some obligation to plaintiffs; they may admit no liability, partial liability, or full liability. This conceptualization was used in an empirical study of a small claims court. The results paint a portrait of the court that is at variance with most of the previous literature. Consumer issues constitute a substantial portion of the court caseload. On average, defendants, including individual consumers, do well when they dispute claims. Among disputed cases, small rather than large businesses predominate. Prior literature has suggested that, in comparison to adjudication, mediation of claims produces compromise outcomes and higher rates of compliance. This research shows that mediation yields a large percentage of all-or-none results, but to the extent that there is compromise and compliance, it can be partly ascribed to admitted liability characteristics. Some data on defaulted cases are also presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , 1984 , pp. 515 - 550
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, Denver, Colorado, June 2, 1983. The research was generously supported by a grant from the Donner Canadian Foundation. The Psychology Department of the University of Western Ontario, under the guidance of Chairman William J. McClelland, also made an important contribution. I am deeply indebted to Judge Gordon Killeen and to Roy Edgecombe and Robert Harris for their help and cooperation. Without the able assistance of Judy Short, Pat Steele, and Marion Gerull this research could not have been carried out. Craig McEwen, Eric Steele, Austin Sarat, and Judge Killeen offered helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Editor Richard Lempert's substantive critique of the manuscript was extraordinary; my debt to him must be acknowledged.

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