Confidentiality, Transparency, and the U.S. Civil Justice System

Joseph W. Doherty is the Director of the Empirical Research Group (ERG) at the UCLA School of Law and the co-Director of the UCLA-RAND Center for Law and Public Policy. He teaches Empirical Legal Studies at UCLA Law. He has co-authored research on bankruptcy with Lynn LoPucki, on the living wage with Richard Sander, on negotiation strategy with Russell Korobkin, on international criminal law with Máximo Langer and Richard Steinberg, on employment discrimination with Gary Blasi, and on administrative law with Jody Freeman. Prof. Doherty has also published articles on voting behaviour and campaign finance.Robert Reville is a Senior Economist at RAND whose research focuses on insurance and compensation for accidents and injuries. From 2002 to 2008, he served as director of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ). During his tenure as director, ICJ started new research streams on corporate ethics and governance and on entrepreneurship. In addition, Dr. Reville founded and co-directed the RAND Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy, and research from this center was acknowledged as critical in the Congressional decision to renew the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act in 2005 and 2007. He has led a series of studies at RAND on workplace injury compensation policy and the impact of disability on employment, and several recommendations from his work were adopted in reform legislation in California in 2004.Laura Zakaras is the Director of the Research Communications Group at the RAND Corporation, a group that consists of 20 communications analysts who work with large, multidisciplinary research teams to help them communicate effectively with policymakers through reports, policy briefs, briefings, and many other products. She is also the Communications Director for the Institute for Civil Justice and the Financial Literacy Center. In that role, she works to expand the reach of RAND research by designing dissemination and outreach strategies for different audiences, developing new research opportunities, reviewing research communications for their effectiveness, and writing policy briefs and brochures. Dr. Zakaras is also an arts researcher and has contributed to studies on building arts participation, the state of the performing arts, the benefits of the arts, and challenges facing state arts agencies.

• INTRODUCTION ; PART I. STUDIES USING EXISTING DATABASES OR NOVEL DATA COLLECTION ; CHAPTER 1. Secrecy, Settlements and Medical Malpractice Litigation (Eric Helland & Gia Lee) ; CHAPTER 2. Shedding Light on Outcomes in Class Actions (Nicholas M. Pace & William Rubenstein) ; CHAPTER 3. Expectations, Outcomes and Fairness: Lessons from the Civil Justice Reform Act Evaluation (Stephen Carroll & Joseph W. Doherty) ; PART II: CASE STUDIES ; CHAPTER 4. Transparency in the Victim Compensation Fund (Jeremiah Goulka & Robert Reville) ; CHAPTER 5. Understanding Mass Tort Defendant Incentives for Confidential Settlements: Lessons from Bayer's Cerivastatin Litigation Strategy (James Anderson) ; CHAPTER 6. Transparency and Expert Evidence in Mass Torts: Insight from Silica Litigation (Lloyd Dixon & Stephen Carroll) ; PART III: REFORM PROPOSALS ; CHAPTER 7. Transparency for Civil Settlements: NASDAQ for Lawsuits? (Stephen Yeazell) ; CHAPTER 8. The Future of Court System Transparency (Lynn M. LoPucki) ; CHAPTER 9. Transparency Through Insurance: Mandates Dominate Discretion (Tom Baker) ; REFERENCES