Attorney for the Day: Measuring the Efficacy of In-Court Limited-Scope Representation

Abstract

Limited-scope representation is on the rise. But the efficacy of helping a client for only part of a case has been called into question. This Note is the first published work to find that limited-scope clients receive significantly better outcomes than those without counsel. The focus of the study is the Attorney for Short Calendar program ("ASC") run by the Mortgage Foreclosure Litigation Clinic (now known as the Housing Clinic) at Yale Law School. To evaluate the ASC program, I studied case files for more than twelve hundred foreclosure-related motions from Oc­ tober 2015 through January 2017. The study includes all such motions in New Haven Superior Court at which defendants appeared prose or with limited-scope counsel. To measure the efficacy of ASC, I compared outcomes for ASC's limited-scope clients against outcomes obtained by prose homeowners - both rulings on that day's motions and the eventual resolution of each case.