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The Effects of Decision Fatigue on Judicial Behavior: A Study of Arkansas Traffic Court Outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2024

Rahul Hemrajani Open the ORCID record for Rahul Hemrajani [Opens in a new window]  and
Tony Hobert Jr.
Rahul Hemrajani*
Affiliation:
National Law School of India University, Bangalore, India
Tony Hobert Jr.*
Affiliation:
Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, Department of Political Science, Philosophy, Religion & Legal Studies
*
Corresponding authors: Rahul Hemrajani and Tony Hobert, Jr.; Emails: rahulhemrajani@nls.ac.in; hoberta@winthrop.edu
Corresponding authors: Rahul Hemrajani and Tony Hobert, Jr.; Emails: rahulhemrajani@nls.ac.in; hoberta@winthrop.edu
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Abstract

Judges who hear multiple cases a day may become exhausted by the time later cases are heard, increasing susceptibility to cognitive depletion, yet the role of workload fatigue in decision-making from hearing cases has rarely been tested in the U.S. One problem is the lack of public data—most U.S. courts do not maintain time-stamped records of case hearings. Using an original dataset of all traffic cases heard in Pulaski County, Arkansas in 2019 and 2020, we examine whether decision fatigue affects case outcomes. We find that charges are less likely to be dismissed in arraignment hearings at the end of a court session than in those at the beginning. This pattern, however, does not hold for trial hearings, suggesting that the effects of fatigue may be context-specific. We suggest policy recommendations to mitigate the effects of decision fatigue in lower courts—courts having the most contact with citizens.

Keywords

decision makingjudicial behaviorlegal realismmental depletionmethods
Type
Research Note
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , First View , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association

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