Prescott, J.J.

Henry King Ransom Professor of Law
Co-director, Empirical Legal Studies Center
Co-director, Program in Law and Economics

3170 Jeffries Hall
734.763.2326
E-mail jprescott@umich.edu

J.J. Prescott's research interests revolve around criminal law, sentencing law and reform, employment law, and the dynamics of civil litigation, particularly settlement. Much of his work is empirical in focus. Current projects include an examination of the ramifications of post-release sex offender laws, a study of the socio-economic consequences of criminal record expungement, an evaluation of the effects of prosecutorial discretion and decision-making on short- and long-term defendant outcomes, and an investigation into the nature and repercussions of partial settlements in civil litigation. In addition, Professor Prescott is the principal investigator of the U-M Online Court Project, which uses technology to help people facing warrants, fines, and minor charges resolve their disputes with the government and courts online and without the need to hire an attorney. Professor Prescott earned his JD, magna cum laude, in 2002 from Harvard Law School, where he was the treasurer (Vol. 115) and an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for the Hon. Merrick B. Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, he went on to earn a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006.

See Professor Prescott's CV.

Recent Publications

More Publications...

"Expungement of Criminal Convictions: An Empirical Study." Sonja B. Starr, co-author. Harv. L. Rev. 133, no. 8 (2020): 2460-555.
Full Text: SSRN

"Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism." Benjamin Pyle and Sonja B. Starr, co-authors. Notre Dame L. Rev. 95, no. 4 (2020): 1643-98.
Full Text: SSRN

"Are Litigation Outcome Disparities Inevitable? Courts, Technology, and the Future of Impartiality." Avital Mentovich and Orna Rabinovich-Einy, Ala. L. Rev. 73 no. 4 (2020): 893-979.
Full Text: SSRN

"Noncompete Agreements in the U.S. Labor Force." Evan Starr and Norman D. Bishara, co-authors. J. L. & Econ. (Forthcoming, 2020).
Full Text: SSRN

"The Behavioral Effects of (Unenforceable) Contracts." Norman D. Bishara and Evan Starr, co-authors. J. L. & Econ. 36 (Forthcoming, 2020).
Full Text: SSRN

"Contracting on Litigation." Kathryn E. Spier, co-author. RAND J. Econ. 50, no. 2 (2019): 391-417.
Full Text: SSRN

"Identifying the Impact of Labor Market Opportunities on Criminal Behavior." Benjamin Pyle, co-author. Int'l Rev. L. & Econ. 59 (2019): 65-81.
Full Text: ScienceDirect (UMich users) | ScienceDirect

"Targeting Poverty in the Courts: Improving the Measurement of Ability to Pay Fines." Meghan M. O'Neil, co-author. Law & Contemp. Probs. 82, no. 1 (2019): 199-226.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Assessing Access-to-Justice Outreach Strategies." J. Institutional & Theoretical Econ. 174, no. 1 (2018): 34-63.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Fourth Amendment Constraints on the Technological Monitoring of Convicted Sex Offenders." Ben A. McJunkin, co-author. New Crim. L. Rev. 21, no. 3 (2018): 379-425.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Improving Access to Justice in State Courts with Platform Technology." Vand. L. Rev. 70 (2017): 1993-2050.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"A Comprehensive Theory of Civil Settlement." K. E. Spier, co-author. NYU L. Rev. 91, no. 1 (2016): 59-143.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Portmanteau Ascendant: Post-Release Regulations and Sex Offender Recidivism." Conn. L. Rev. 48, no. 4 (2016): 1035-78.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Online Case Resolution Systems: Enhancing Access, Fairness, Accuracy, and Efficiency." M. A. Bulinski, co-author. Mich. J. Race & L. 21, no. 2 (2016): 205-49.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

"Understanding Noncompetition Agreements: The 2014 Noncompete Survey Project." N. D. Bishara and E. Starr, co-authors. Mich. St. L. Rev. 2016, no. 2 (2016): 369-464.
Full Text: SSRN | MLaw Repository

Recently Taught Courses

Curriculum Interest Areas

Activities

Presented "Targeting Poverty in the Courts: Improving the Measurement of Ability to Pay Fines" at the Law Alternatives to Incarceration Symposium, University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Haifa, Israel, May 2018.

Participated in a discussion about Gregory DeAngelo and Bryan C. McCannon's paper, "Judicial Compensation and Performance," at the Supreme Court Economic Review Research Roundtable on the Economics of Legal Error, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, Fairfax, Virginia, February 2018.

Presented "Noncompetes and Employee Mobility" at the Law and Economics Workshop, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Toronto, and at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2017.

Presented "Platform Procedure: Using Technology to Facilitate (Efficient) Civil Settlement" at the Empirical Studies of Judicial Systems International Conference, Institutum Iurisprudentiae Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, June 2017.

Presented "Assessing Access to Justice Outreach Strategies" at the Seminar on Empirical Methods for the Law sponsored by the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, and the University of Bonn, Syracuse, Italy, June 2017.

Participated in the panel discussion, "Innovative Practices," at the Practitioners and Scholars in Dialogue Symposium: What Do We Know About the Civil Justice System?, Civil Justice Research Institute, University of California-Irvine School of Law, Irvine, California, April 2017.

Presented "Improving Access to Justice in State Courts with Platform Technology" at the Vanderbilt Law Review Symposium on State Courts, Nashville, Tennessee, March 2017.

Presented "U-M's Online Court Project: Big Data, Analytics, and Research Opportunities" at the Complexity and the Law Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 2017.

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