Do the “Haves” Still Come Out Ahead?

Abstract

In the spring of 1998, the University of Wisconsin Law School sponsored a multidisciplinary conference to assess the impact of perhaps the most visible, widely cited, and influential article ever published in the law and society field: Marc Galanter's (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change.” In that article Galanter attempts to explain the outcome of trial court litigation in essentially structural terms. He discusses “the way in which the basic architecture of the legal system creates and limits the possibilities of using the system for redistributive change.” Galanter divides parties into “one shotters” and “repeat players.” A one shotter is a person, business, or organizational entity that deals with the legal system infrequently. The one shotter's claims are too large (relative to their size) or too small (relative to the cost of remedies) to be managed routinely and rationally, but a one shotter's interest in winning a particular case is very high.