Civil law—the body of laws of a state or nation dealing with the rights of private citizens—seeks to resolve noncriminal disputes such as disagreements over property ownership or damage, insurance, contracts, divorce, and child custody. RAND helps make the civil justice system more efficient and more equitable by supplying government and private decisionmakers and the public with the results of objective, empirically based, analytic research.
The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) conducts research on all aspects of civil justice, from trends in litigation and jury verdicts to punitive damages, compensation systems, and alternative dispute resolution. Directly or indirectly, civil justice issues have an impact on us all.
REPORT
Some argue that the confidentiality of the civil justice system keeps it working efficiently and fairly; others argue that the public is being denied information about hazards that may cause harm. A balanced approach to increasing transparency can improve the system, raise public confidence, and protect litigants' privacy.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief provides an overview of a collection of essays, a collaborative project by the UCLA-RAND Center for Law and Public Policy, examining the trade-offs between transparency and confidentiality in the civil justice system.
NEWS RELEASE
The quest for greater transparency in the American civil justice system is the topic of a new book of essays illustrating how a balanced approach to increasing transparency can improve the civil justice system, raise public confidence and protect litigants' privacy.
REPORT
Companies could lower the high cost of large-scale electronic discovery in lawsuits by using a computer application known as predictive coding to reduce the number of documents requiring human review.
REPORT
A preliminary assessment of the impact of the financial crisis on the civil justice system finds that litigation demands on some parts of the system have increased, that funding for state courts may be trending downward, and that there have been disruptions in the legal services economy, in the provision of legal aid, and in the operation and staffing of courts.
REPORT
Globalization, consolidation, information technology, and litigation financing are changing the way legal services are provided in the United States. This paper offers a framework for examining recent and ongoing innovations in U.S. legal services to aid policymakers in understanding the likely effects of innovations and the role of policy in promoting or deterring innovation, and to provide criteria that policymakers might use to decide…
RESEARCH BRIEF
The most comprehensive analysis of the risk of malpractice claims by physician specialty in more than two decades finds that U.S. physicians have a greater than 75% career-long risk of facing litigation. In some specialties, doctors can be virtually certain of a lawsuit over the course of their careers. However, the vast majority of those claims will not result in payment to a plaintiff.
REPORT
Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.
RESEARCH BRIEF
People with asbestos injuries are increasingly receiving compensation from trusts set up by bankrupt asbestos defendants. This brief documents how courts handling these cases consider trust payments when determining compensation.
NEWS RELEASE
Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The likelihood of malpractice suits and the size of indemnity payments vary across specialties, but by age 65, 75% of physicians in low-risk specialties had faced a malpractice claim, as compared with 99% of physicians in high-risk specialties.
COMMENTARY
From the standpoint of policy makers, the basic challenge is to ensure that liability concerns do not derail the clinical value of new CDS technology, write Michael Greenberg and M. Susan Ridgely.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Clinical decision support (CDS) refers to electronic technology used to enhance clinical decision making. The basic challenge for policymakers interested in promoting adoption of CDS is to ensure that liability concerns do not derail the clinical value of new CDS technology.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This external publication is an online database of short Horizon Scanning Centre think-pieces. RAND Europe updated 25% of the papers on this database, to incorporate more recent policy issues, evidence, and developments.
REPORT
While legislative and judicial reforms have made it increasingly difficult to obtain compensation for nonmalignant diseases in the tort system, the trust system remains a source of compensation for such injuries. This report describes the creation, organization, and operation of asbestos personal-injury trusts and compiles publicly available information on the assets, outlays, and governing boards of the 26 largest ones.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Provides an overview of U.S. alternative or “third-party” financing: describes the main types of financing, reviews arguments to limit this activity, begins to analyze its effects on litigation, and suggests lessons for policymakers.
REPORT
Alternative litigation financing (ALF) — also known as “third-party” litigation financing — refers to provision of capital by parties other than plaintiffs, defendants, their lawyers, or defendants' insurers to support litigation-related activity. This paper describes the ALF industry as of early 2010 and discusses the legal ethics, social morality, and, especially, potential economic effects of ALF.
NEWS RELEASE
Reducing the number of preventable patient injuries in California hospitals from 2001 to 2005 was associated with a corresponding drop in malpractice claims against physicians.
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