Commonwealth v. Augustine’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

31 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “First, they act as a powerful disincentive against unlawful conduct. Second, they often provide an incentive for attorneys to provide representation in cases that otherwise * would not be financially prudent for them to take on, and in that sense they help to assure that claimants who might not be able to afford counsel, or whose claims are too small to warrant an expenditure of funds for counsel, will be represented.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ferman v. Sturgis Cleaners, Inc.

2. “'to equalize the resources of the defendant with those of the Commonwealth' in cases where a defendant does not have court-appointed counsel but is forced to defend against a Commonwealth appeal; and to prevent a defendant's privately retained counsel from being placed 'in the untenable position of either volunteering his services on appeal or abandoning the defendant.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Ruiz

3. “authorize[s] awards of appellate fees and costs to defendants in those situations where the Commonwealth is entitled to appeal, or seek leave to appeal, from trial court rulings in a defendant's favor.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Ruiz