Plaintiphobia in the Appellate Courts: Civil Rights Really Do Differ from Negotiable Instruments

Professors Clermont and Eisenberg conducted a systematic analysis of appellate court behavior and report that defendants have a substantial advantage over plaintiffs on appeal. Their analysis attempted to control for different variables that may affect the decision to appeal or the appellate outcome, including case complexity, case type, amount in controversy, and whether there had been a judge or a jury trial. Once they accounted for these variables and explored and discarded various alternate explanations, they came to the conclusion that a defendants\u27 advantage exists probably because of appellate judges\u27 misperceptions that trial level adjudicators are pro-plaintiff