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David Rosenberg & Steven M. Shavell, A Simple Proposal to Halve Litigation Costs, 91 Va. L. Rev. 1721 (2005).


Abstract: This Essay advances a simple proposal that could reduce civil litigation costs in the country by about half, yet without compromising the functioning of our liability system in a significant way. The proposal has two parts. First, courts would select randomly for litigation only half the cases brought before them; courts would not allow the other half to proceed. Second, in cases accepted for litigation and in which judgments for damages issue, courts would double the level of damages. Thus, the proposal might be described as one of random adjudication with dobule damages.