University of Tokyo

Abstract
Survey Number 0198
Survey Title Survey of Individuals who Utilize Civil Litigation, 2000
Depositor Japanese Council of Restructuring of the Judical System
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Educational Purpose Only available for research.
Period of Data Use Permission One year
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Summary In construction of "the civil action system which people tend to use", it is necessary to show clearly what civil action system people desire as the premise. Since use of a lawsuit is not necessarily active in Japan, this survey of civil action users was planned for the purpose of considering as the fundamental data to explore "the state of the civil action system which is easy to use for people". With this survey of actual civil action users, the circumstances which result in a lawsuit, the motivation of lawsuit use, the evaluation to the process and to result in a lawsuit, the evaluation of judges, lawyers and the court personnel, and the evaluation about a lawsuit system overall were asked. Its aim is to clarify the whole evaluation structure for the civil action system by users, and to show concrete directivity by reform argument.
Data Type quantitative research
quantitative research: micro data
Universe It is a person concerned the incidents which became settled between June 5 and 23rd, 2000 (except for those of Tokyo and the Osaka District Court, which was until the 14th) by the civil-affairs usual lawsuit of the 1st trial judgment of the district courts, and the personnel lawsuits, and which ended in judgment, reconciliation, and withdrawal.
Unit of Observation Individual
Sample Size A total of 1,612 subjects were sampled and received letters to ask participating in the survey. The number of actual survey samples were 1,202, of whom 591 returned valid responses (valid response rate: 36.6%).
Date of Collection 2000-09 ~ 2000-10
September-October 2000
Time Period 2000 ~ 2000
Spatial Unit akita
fukushima
gunma
tokyo
toyama
yamanashi
shizuoka
shiga
osaka
shimane
okayama
ehime
fukuoka
miyazaki
Sixteen District Courts in Japan (Sapporo, Akita, Fukushima, Maebashi, Tokyo, Toyama, Kofu, Shizuoka, Otsu, Osaka, Matsue, Okayama, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, Miyazaki, Naha).
Sampling Procedure Non-probability: Quota
In this investigation, since the investigation in cities, towns and villages other than a local central city suited the difficult situation because of the restriction of period or budget, this investigation is aimed at the central government office of a district court and the district court incident. In the setup of a district court for survey, on the basis of such a premise, selection was performed from a viewpoint of the local characteristic and population by having made all prefectures into the selection unit, and the district court central government office of all the selected prefectures were determined as the survey subjects. On that occasion, sufficient balance of the local characteristic and the point of population were considered in order to reflect national situation uniformly.
Mode of Data Collection Structural interview (took about half an hour). The questions were created beforehand. It carried out in the form where an investigator reads out the questions orally. However, in "list to be presented" parts, since the form choosing applicable numbers from the scales were taken, the lists created separately was handed to the respondents.
Investigator Justice System Reform Council. Survey was done by Survey Research Center Co., LTD.
DOI 10.34500/SSJDA.0198
Sponsors (Funds)
Related Publications (by the Investigator) "Minji Sosho Riyosha Chosa Hokokusho [Report on the Survey of Civil action user]", May, 2001, Japan Institute of Workers' Evolution.
Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis)
Documentation [Chosa-hyo]
Major Survey Items (1) persons concerned and kind of the incidents: an individual or a corporation, respondents' position, a complainant or a defendant, whether the other party is an individual or a corporation, content of the incident, the lawsuit amount of money.
(2) Circumstances which result in a lawsuit: year when the issues occurred, negotiation before the trial, lawsuit use motivation, existence of lawyer request, access situation to lawyers, reason for having requested lawyers and reason of not requested, reason for lawsuit evasion.
(3) Evaluations to the trial obtained from lawsuit experience: general impression of the process of lawsuits, predicted expenses concerning lawsuits, evaluation to the expenses which actually spent, reason for the negative evaluation, predicted time concerning lawsuits, evaluation to the time which actually spent, reason for the negative evaluation, impression for judges, the court personnel, and lawyers (grade of consideration of opinions, reliability, common sense nature, politeness, knowledge outside laws, existence of preparation, degree of satisfaction), contact opportunities to the court personnel, impression of the other party's lawyers.
(4) Result of lawsuits: end situation, understandability of judgment and reconciliation, understandability of lawyers' explanation, reason for withdrawal, right and duty acquired as a result of the lawsuit (contents fulfillment situations), and subjective evaluation to the lawsuit results.
(5) Evaluation to the court system and laws at large (eight items, such as degree of satisfaction of the whole lawsuit system, and intention of reuse).
(6) respondents' attribute: [individual] sex, age, occupation, type of industry, education, annual income, frequency of attending at trial, whether the interrogation was received, existence of the trial experience other than this time. [corporation]type of industry, capital, number of employees, respondents' affiliation section, frequency of attending at trial, whether the interrogation was received, existence of the trial experience other than this time.
Date of Release 2001/07/23
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Legislation and legal systems
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Version 1 : 2001-07-23
2 : 2004-04-01
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