IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v21y2024i3p532-576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of legal representation in Israeli traffic courts: Addressing selection bias and generalizability problems

Author

Listed:
  • Rabeea Assy
  • Tomer Carmel

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of legal representation on the process and outcomes of legal proceedings, focusing on Israeli traffic courts dealing with simple traffic offenses. It finds that legal representation significantly increased defendants' prospects of obtaining plea bargains and of avoiding demerits points. However, legally represented defendants were also exposed to higher fines compared to self‐represented defendants. Since points are typically the primary concern for defendants, we contend that legal representation improved case outcomes, overall. Considering the simplicity of the process, the minimal legal expertise required, and the low stakes involved, the representation effect was unexpectedly robust. This effect may potentially be even stronger in more complex cases and where the stakes are higher. Unlike previous observational studies, this study reduces the risks associated with selection bias and produces findings that are more credible and potentially generalizable to other contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Rabeea Assy & Tomer Carmel, 2024. "The impact of legal representation in Israeli traffic courts: Addressing selection bias and generalizability problems," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(3), pages 532-576, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:21:y:2024:i:3:p:532-576
    DOI: 10.1111/jels.12392
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12392
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jels.12392?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:21:y:2024:i:3:p:532-576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.