The Case for Civil Legal Aid
Fecha: julio 2019
Marco Celentani
Asistencia legal, Eficiencia
Law and economics. A productive relationship
Legal aid programs are in-kind transfer schemes aimed at providing assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Because they target low income individuals, legal aid programs are normally viewed as redistributionally desirable. But as with other in-kind programs it is important to determine whether legal aid is an efficient redistribution tool. This paper addresses this issue by proposing an economic environment in which legal aid programs are welfare enhancing because they serve to mitigate the social costs of informational asymmetries in litigation.