New Research Reveals If Having A Senior Lawyer Increases Win Rates In Court

Research by a legal data company that showcases lawyers in the UK & US shows the chances of winning in court and investigates whether experienced barristers make a difference.

United Kingdom - November 10, 2023 —

There has long been a debate as to whether or not senior lawyers boost an individual’s chances of winning in court. Until now, there’s not been any data to confirm if they truly do lead to an increased win rate. BeCivil UK - an experienced legal data company - recently embarked on a mission to find the answer once and for all. It looked at samples from thousands of court cases across England and Wales, leading to some intriguing discoveries. 

The Odds Of Winning A Case Are 1 in 3

To begin this research, BeCivil UK analysed data from 6,000 UK High Court cases over the past 30 years. It was a first-of-its-kind study, revealing that the odds of winning are effectively 1 in 3. 

To be more specific, the study showed that 1987 cases were allowed (34%) while 3822 were denied (66%). 

The company dug deeper and included the odds on appeal as well, which revealed very similar findings. Here, appeals were allowed in 3900 cases (33%) with 8022 cases seeing the appeals denied (67%). 

These findings formed the baseline for BeCivil UK’s research into the impact of experienced lawyers. It could then look into whether having a more senior barrister influences these figures and leads to a higher or lower success rate. 

Having A Senior Lawyer Helps, But Not Substantially

For this investigation. BeCivil UK looked at a larger sample of cases (12,000) to see the success rates of claimants where there was an inequality (and equality) of arms in the courtroom. It looked at “silks” or senior barristers who are very expensive and experienced, compared to “juniors” who are less senior advocates. 

The Claimant vs Claimant win rate from these findings was as follows: 

• Silk vs Silk: 32%
• Silk vs Junior: 39%
• Junior vs Junior: 34%
• Junior vs Silk: 28%

Taking the previous figures, this data shows that when there’s an equality of arms in court, the success rate remains around the 34% average. However, when there’s an inequality of arms, the claimant's success rate moves outside this average rate. When senior lawyers go against juniors, they have a slightly higher 39% win rate. Interestingly, when a junior goes up against a senior, the win rate drops to 28%. 

This shows that having a more senior lawyer does help, but not substantially (10-20%). Conversely, having a junior lawyer fight against a senior one can hurt a claimant’s chance of success by 10-20%. 

Finally, the research firm took this data and dropped the constraint that the silk must represent the claimant. Instead, it looked at whether a silk was on the claimant’s side against a more junior lawyer in a general sense. How does this impact the claimant’s chances of winning? 

This produced the most staggering outcome, showing that there’s a 51% chance of the claimant winning in this situation. That gives them a significant edge when millions of pounds are at stake, signalling the importance of having an experienced presence on your side. 

About BeCivil UK

BeCivil is a legal data company that mines legal data using AI to build the first-ever evidence-based legal search engine and insights tool for lawyers.

For further information, view the website here: https://becivil.co.uk/. 

Contact Info:
Name: Michael Green
Email: Send Email
Organization: BeCivil
Website: https://becivil.co.uk

Release ID: 89112823

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