Legal professionals have, for long periods, criticized the practice of forum shopping for offering an undue advantage to one of the parties involved. Renowned Berkeley Law professor Tejas Narechania, however, proposed a fresh viewpoint of understanding this phenomenon. His focus was not just on its immediate influence but the consequential impact on the quality of judicial opinions overall.
Narechania’s study dives deep into the intricate relationship between a cluttered docket – a potential outcome of excessive forum shopping – and a judge’s error rate. The empirical part of the study revolves around understanding this association through the analysis of reversal rates.
Commenting on his research, Narechania noted, “Where forum shopping leads to forum crowding… that’s bad for the docket, that’s bad for the litigants, that’s bad for the judiciary.” His insightful perspective sheds light on the unexplored repercussions that forum shopping may have on the triad of the legal system – litigants, dockets, and the judiciary.
For an in-depth understanding of the potential impacts of forum shopping on the quality of judicial decisions, one might want to explore Narechania’s comprehensive study, detailed in a piece featured on the National Law Journal.