How Effective Are Limited Legal Assistance Programs? A Randomized Experiment in a Massachusetts Housing Court

Last registered on September 01, 2017

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
How Effective Are Limited Legal Assistance Programs? A Randomized Experiment in a Massachusetts Housing Court
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001690
Initial registration date
August 31, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 01, 2017, 10:14 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Harvard Law School

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Harvard University
PI Affiliation
Wellesley University

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2009-01-01
End date
2012-03-12
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We persuaded entities conducting a civil Gideon pilot program in summary eviction cases to allow us to randomize which potential clients would receive offers of traditional attorney-client relationships from oversubscribed legal aid staff attorneys and which would be referred to a lawyer for the day program. We examine outcomes related to whether matters not yet in litigation reached court, possession of the unit, monetary consequences of non-payment of rent cases, and court burden. We find no statistically significant evidence that the legal services provider's offer of full, as opposed to limited, representation had a large (or any) effect on any outcome of substantive import. We explore several possible interpretations of our results, and we caution against both over-interpretation and under-interpretation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Greiner, James, Jonathan Hennessy and Cassandra Wolos Pattanayak. 2017. "How Effective Are Limited Legal Assistance Programs? A Randomized Experiment in a Massachusetts Housing Court." AEA RCT Registry. September 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1690-1.0
Former Citation
Greiner, James, Jonathan Hennessy and Cassandra Wolos Pattanayak. 2017. "How Effective Are Limited Legal Assistance Programs? A Randomized Experiment in a Massachusetts Housing Court." AEA RCT Registry. September 01. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1690/history/21102
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Offer of a traditional attorney-client relationship on a summary eviction matter versus a referral to a lawyer-for-the-day program.
Intervention Start Date
2009-01-01
Intervention End Date
2010-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- Whether the case of an occupant who had received a "notice to quit" proceeded to litigation;
- Possession, measured as actual possession, judgement of possession, and whether a writ of execution had been issued
- Months of rent lost to landlords
- Court burden, measured as case length in days, number of times a judge interacted with or issued a contested ruling in a case, number of pre-judgements filed, and number of jury trials demanded
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The researchers conducted a randomized field experiment to examine the impact of an offer of traditional attorney-client representation versus an offer of "unbundled" or limited assistance representation to occupants facing summary eviction. Eligible occupants contacted the legal services provider at one of two stages of dispute: after having received a "notice to quit" or after a summary eviction lawsuit had been filed. Eligible occupants were required to attend either a one-to-two hour clinic about summary eviction or meet with a staff attorney. Next, occupants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group received an offer of traditional, full legal representation. The control group was informed that they were eligible for unbundled or limited "lawyer for the day" assistance in hallway settlements and mediation sessions, but not in filing motions or court appearances. Four primary sets of outcomes were evaluated: whether a case proceeded to litigation, possession of the unit, financial consequences, and burdens on the court. The primary method of analysis was an unweighted, simple permutation test.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Occupants were randomized in small batches by computer into treatment or control groups after completing required eviction clinic or attorney meeting.
Randomization Unit
individual cases
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
184 cases
Sample size: planned number of observations
184 cases
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
85 treatment cases, 99 control cases
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard Committee for Research on Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2009-05-01
IRB Approval Number
F17526

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2010, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2010, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
184 cases
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
184 cases
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
85 treatment cases; 99 control cases
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
We persuaded entities conducting a civil Gideon pilot program in summary eviction cases to allow us to randomize which potential clients would receive offers of traditional attorney-client relationships from oversubscribed legal aid staff attorneys and which would be referred to a lawyer for the day program. We examine outcomes related to whether matters not yet in litigation reached court, possession of the unit, monetary consequences of non-payment of rent cases, and court burden. We find no statistically significant evidence that the Provider's offer of full, as opposed to limited, representation had a large (or any) effect on any outcome of substantive import. We explore several possible interpretations of our results, and we caution against both over-interpretation and under-interpretation.
Citation
Greiner, D. James, Cassandra Wolos Pattanayak, and Jonathan Philip Hennessy. "How Effective Are Limited Legal Assistance Programs? A Randomized Experiment in a Massachusetts Housing Court." Working Paper, September 2012.

Reports & Other Materials