Public Evaluations of Legal Disputes: A Study of Causes andConsequences

法律的制度在现代社会中越来越多地被用来 调解纠纷，化解矛盾。 以往研究和 然而，流行文化中的描绘表明， 美国有一个严重的"形象"问题，客户通常 对他们的法律的服务质量不满意。 对律师和法律的服务的不满可以 对社会不利，因为它阻碍了解决 具体情况，可能会阻碍使用法律来解决 未来的冲突 这项拨款将提供一个全面的审查， 对争议的法律的补救措施的意见，并评估其程度， 客户对其法律的不满的原因和后果 离婚、侵权和刑事纠纷的服务 投诉 虽然焦点小组和个人访谈将是 在研究的早期阶段，主要数据将是 来自全国概率抽样的电话调查， 一千个市民。 该调查特别关注客户的 对律师职业风格和社会权力策略的看法 他们的律师使用，以及这些因素如何影响评级 程序正义、对法律的服务的满意度和未来 使用法律的方法解决争端的意图。的 这项研究的结果将填补一个重要的经验空白，在我们的 了解公众对律师的看法和使用法律的 解决争端的补救办法。 此外，结果将有助于 关于传统的未来效用的理论讨论 现代社会人际纠纷的法律的解决方案。

Legal institutions are used increasingly in modern society to mediate disputes and resolve conflicts. Previous research and portrayals in popular culture, however, suggest that lawyers in the U.S. have a serious "image" problem and that clients are generally dissatisfied with the quality of their legal services. Dissatisfaction with lawyers and legal services can be disfunctional for society because it hampers the resolution of particular cases and may discourage the the use of law to resolve future conflict. This grant will provide a comprehensive examination of public opinion about legal remedies to disputes, and assess the extent, causes and consequences of client dissatisfaction with their legal services in disputes related to divorce, torts, and criminal complaints. While focus groups and personal interviews will be used in the early stages of the research, the primary data will be derived from telephone surveys of a national probability sample of 1000 citizens. The survey gives particular attention to clients' perceptions of the style of lawyering and social power strategies used by their attorneys and how these factors influence ratings of procedural justice, satisfaction with legal services, and future intentions of using legal methods of dispute settlement. The results of this study will fill an important empirical gap in our understanding of public perceptions of lawyers and the use of legal remedies to redress disputes. Also, the results will contribute to theoretical discussions about the future utility of traditional legal solutions to interpersonal disputes in modern society.