Inside post-socialist courts: the determinants of adjudicatory outcomes in Slovenian commercial disputes

Abstract

Despite the judiciary’s central role in the capitalist market system, micro-level empirical analyses of courts in post-socialist countries are remarkably rare. This paper draws on a unique hand-collected dataset of commercial claims filed at Slovenian courts to examine the determinants of two salient adjudicatory outcomes: whether a case was resolved via trial or settlement and if the case was tried, whether the plaintiff was awarded the initial claim. Consistent with the divergent expectations theories of litigation, we find that trial-based resolution is less likely when parties use mediation and more likely when the case is complex as proxied by appointment of an expert. In contrast, stakes do not predict the prospects of trial. Addressing sample selection concerns, we show that defendants’ legal representation, plaintiffs’ profitability, and court identity are robust predictors of plaintiff victory at trial. We discuss possible explanations for these data patterns.