The basic rule in civil litigation is that the plaintiff carries the burden of proof and the general standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence. The plaintiff prevails if she establishes her case with a probability exceeding 0.5. Drawing on insights from behavioral economics and new...

The market for legal services, and particularly lawyers' Contingent Fee (CF) arrangements, have been extensively studied from legal, economic and sociological standpoints, but curiously not from a behavioral perspective. Building on Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory, this paper presents a...

Lawyers' Contingent Fee (CF) rates are rather uniform, often one-third of the recovery. Arguably, this uniformity is a type of anti-competitive price-fixing, which results in clients paying supra-competitive fees. This paper challenges this argument. It shows that uniform CF rates provide...

The law often lays down mandatory rules, from which the parties may deviate in favor of one party but not the other. Examples include the invalidation of high liquidated damages and the unenforceability of excessive non-compete clauses in employment contracts. In these cases, the law may...

Building on Kahneman and Tversky's Prospect Theory, this paper presents a series of experiments designed to reveal people's preferences regarding attorneys' fees. Contrary to common economic wisdom, it demonstrates that loss aversion (rather than risk aversion or incentivizing the lawyer to win...

Legal economists and other theoreticians continuously debate the pros and cons of specific performance as a remedy for breach of contract; and comparative-law scholars debate the extent to which legal systems actually diverge on this issue. Very few studies have used qualitative methods,...

This chapter, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law, critically reviews the behavioral literature on judicial decisionmaking. Among other things, it presents general theories of judicial decisionmaking, such as the story model and coherence-based reasoning. It...

תקציר בעברית: רשימה זו סוקרת באורח ביקורתי את ההישגים של הניתוח ההתנהגותי (ביהביוראלי) של החלטות שיפוטיות ואת האתגרים הניצבים בפני המחקר בתחום זה. בין היתר, הרשימה...

Economic analysis, and economic analysis of law in particular, ordinarily assumes that paternalism and efficiency are incompatible bases for analyzing and evaluating rules and actions. Most economists reject paternalism as inefficient. By appealing to the theoretical foundations of normative...

Why is tort law much more developed than unjust enrichment law? Is there a reason for the very different legal treatment of governmental takings and governmental givings? Why are contract remedies structured around the four ‘interests’ and why is the disgorgement interest only marginally...