Justice for all? The Impact of Legal Aid in India

• In Event: Courts, Crime, and Consequences: Using Administrative Data to Estimate Causal Effects of Court Interactions

Abstract

Barriers to justice perpetuate poverty and economic inequality. We study the impact of a large scale expansion of access to legal representation: the establishment of legal aid clinics in prisons across India. We collect the opening dates of over 750 prison legal aid clinics and match these to (i) data on over 13 million criminal cases and (ii) prison population statistics. Our empirical strategy exploits the staggered roll-out of clinics in a difference-in-differences design. We find that defendants with access to legal aid are more likely to receive a definitive judgement, more likely to get a favorable outcome, and face a higher chance of acquittal relative to conviction. The rise in acquittals is driven by an increase in the share of cases that are dismissed early in the trial. In line with the increasing acquittal rate, we find a reduction in the number of convicts at the prison level. The welfare gain is considerable: 31,055 individuals spared prison time each year and a return of 7.6 dollars on every dollar spent on legal aid. 

Author

• NITIN KUMAR BHARTI, University of Western Australia
  Presenting Author