Abstract
In Japan, it has been said that time and cost of litigation prevents people from filing suit. However, when we analyze the survey data of Civil Litigation Behavior Research Project, we find that there are no statistically significant correlations between general public’s attitude toward time and cost of litigation and decision to file suit. In order to explain it, we propose the following hypothesis and test it by means of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM); Attitude toward time and cost of litigation is affected by two variables, which have opposite effects on decision to file suit. One of them is negative images of time and cost of litigation which negatively affects decision to file suit, and the other is the factor of right and interest which positively affects it. Moreover, the latter strengthens the effect of the former. We also compare general public’s and litigants’ attitude toward time and cost of litigation by means of Multi-Group SEM. The result has several implications. One of them is the implication for the long-standing debate why litigation rate in Japan is so low. Several factors such as attitude toward rights, and time and cost of litigation have been proposed to explain the low litigation rate. Now most commentators argue that these factors are not mutually exclusive but complementary. The next question is how they are related to each other. SEM analysis of this article can be helpful to think about this question.
