Revision of author's disseration (doctoral - Brandeis University, 2010), issued under title: The politics of judicial retrenchment.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The politics of judicial retrenchment -- Changing the decisionmakers: from litigation to arbitration -- Changing the rules: the battle to control civil procedure -- Changing the venue: the quasi-judicial realm of the administrative state -- Changing the incentives: leaving rights and removing remedies -- Conclusion.

"Since the rights revolution of the 1960s, the majority of the laws expanding access to justice have remained on the books. Today, though, less than two percent of civil cases are decided by trials. No Day in Court examines how political and legal actors at all levels have scaled back access to the courts in recent times. Although the conventional narrative of backlash focuses on a conservative Supreme Court and Congress, the effort is far more broadly based. At every level of government, officials and activists have worked to restrict access to the courts for rights claims by targeting the institutional and legal procedures that govern what constitutes a valid legal case, who can be sued, how a case is adjudicated, and what remedies are available. As Sarah Staszak shows in this powerful account, these strategies have had a profoundly negative impact on access to justice in the United States today"--Unedited summary from book cover.