A prior post noting Prof. George Priest's passing predictably emphasizes his enduring influence on the topic of selection effects in litigation. Among the many papers scheduled for publication in 42:3 Yale J. on Reg. (2025) and presented at a symposium (or 'Festschrift') just months before Priest's recent passing includes 'The Selection of Disputes' at Forty, by Daniel Klerman (USC) & Yoon-Ho Alex Lee (Northwestern). The Klerman & Lee paper (abstract below) complements, contributes to, and reflects Priest's enormous scholarly legacy.
“Priest and Klein's ‘Selection of Disputes for Litigation’ has been one of the most influential law review articles of all time. This Article reviews its contribution to legal scholarship. Priest and Klein's central and enduring contribution is the recognition that some cases are more likely to settle than others. It follows that litigated disputes are not a random sample of all disputes. This basic insight is true under nearly all litigation models and is also confirmed by a large body of empirical evidence. Priest and Klein's article is also famous for its prediction that, under certain conditions, the plaintiff trial win rate will tend to approach fifty percent. That prediction, however, is not supported by most other litigation models and has received only modest support from the empirical literature. Our citation analysis also suggests that 'The Selection of Disputes for Litigation' is one of the rare articles whose importance was both recognized almost immediately and whose influence has continued to grow over several decades.”
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