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Litigant Satisfaction Versus Legal Adequacy in Small Claims Court Narratives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

William M. O'Barr  and
John M. Conley
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Abstract

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This article examines litigant narratives in small claims courts from two perspectives: the degree to which relaxed procedures and evidentiary constraints provide greater satisfaction to litigants than more formal courts, and the problems litigants encounter in providing legally adequate accounts without the assistance of attorneys. Data for this study are 55 trials in two states (North Carolina and Colorado). The findings show that narratives in small claims court bear many resemblances to everyday talk about trouble, provide litigants significant opportunities to tell their stories in court, but frequently fail to include critical components of legally adequate claims.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , 1985 , pp. 661 - 701
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

The research reported here is a joint project. The authors alternate priority of authorship in their publications. The research was supported by grants from the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, the Research Council of Duke University, and the Law Center Foundation of the University of North Carolina. We acknowledge with appreciation the assistance of the officials of the small claims courts of Durham, North Carolina, and Denver, Colorado, and of the persons whose cases we studied. Earlier versions of some portions of this article were reported at the Law and Society Association meetings in San Diego in June 1985 and at a conference on Language and the Judicial Process funded by the National Science Foundation and held at Georgetown University in July 1985.

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