ABSTRACT
What does the public think it means to ‘settle’ a civil case? Most legal disputes in the United States end in an agreement to settle, but little is known about what laypeople think about settlement. To fill this gap, we took a direct approach: we asked a nationally representative sample of US adults – more than one thousand of them – basic questions about settlement. We found widespread understanding about the essential nature and frequency of settlement, but persistent, though not universal, misconceptions about the details, including the role of a jury and settlement scope. Because settlement is such a pervasive part of the US legal system, the system’s legitimacy turns in part on how the public understands and views civil settlement. The survey reported here provides a foundational study of the understandings and framework – the schemas – that the public bring to settlement.
Robbennolt, Jennifer K and Bregant, Jessica and Winship, Verity, Settlement Schemas: How Laypeople Understand Civil Settlement (April 21, 2023), Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Forthcoming; University of Illinois College of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No 23-08; University of Houston Law Center No 2023-A-10.
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