Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis article explores one aspect of India's attempts to address its access to justice dilemma through the establishment of district-level consumer fora. Data points are extracted from 1,400 cases nationwide to piece together a portrait of the input and output of these institutions. The data collected include: win/loss rates; time from filing to decision; presence of attorneys (and their effects on win/loss rates and time from filing to decision); amounts of damages and costs awarded; and types of cases filed. In the end, this sampling of cases, combined with observations and interviews, led to several broad conclusions—that access to justice is increased but not for the marginalized or poor; that the consumer fora are severely underused; and that they are highly localized institutions leaving significant discretion in the hands of forum Presidents to drive the process which greatly varies the effects on access to justice among districts.

During the course of the last several decades a national trend of more contested, costly, and acrimonious judicial campaigns has emerged. In this regard, these contests have begun to take on the characteristics of races for high profile offices. During the 1980s North Carolina's elections for its court of appeals and supreme court followed these trends. The Republican Party in the state, prior to the 1980s, had generally not contested these races. However, over the course of the last decade Republicans suddenly began to challenge the Democrats for seats on the two appellate division courts, and to do so quite competitively. Just as suddenly, in 1992 there was a reversal of Republican strategy as they contested only four out of ten seats in the appellate division. This article analyzes the 1992 election cycle and its significance in relation to the aforementioned statewide and national trends.