Journal Article
One in five indigent murder defendants in Philadelphia are randomly assigned representation by public defenders while the remainder receive court-appointed private attorneys. Compared to appointed counsel, public defenders in Philadelphia reduce their clients' murder conviction rate by 19%, lower the probability of a life sentence by 62%, and reduce overall expected time served in prison by 24%.
Periodical
An analysis of the outcomes for murder defendants who were represented either by public defenders or by appointed private counsel in Philadelphia raises important questions about the adequacy and fairness of
the criminal 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
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.
Report
This book examines how state tort laws and court proceedings consider the compensation available from asbestos bankruptcy trusts and the evidence submitted in trust claim forms, and how the establishment of the trusts can affect compensation.
Report
In July 2009, the UCLA-RAND Center for Law and Public Policy convened a conference to assess the regulatory implications, effect on dispute resolution, and trends in the development of third-party litigation funding.
Report
This monograph reviews the history of no-fault auto insurance in the United States and concludes that political support for no-fault dissipated because premium costs under no-fault have been higher than tort largely due to higher medical costs.
Report
This book discusses how some clinics have won significant gains at the appellate and federal court levels concerning victim standing, the rights to be consulted and heard, and the right to privacy.
Report
Class action lawsuits make headlines and arouse policy debates, but little is known about most of them. This book presents the results of surveys of insurers and state regulators to learn more about class litigation against insurance companies.
Report
Presents the most comprehensive description to date of the longest-running mass tort litigation in U.S. history.
Report
Assesses the impact of MICRA’s limits on plaintiffs’ awards and attorneys’ fees on final judgments in medical malpractice cases
Report
Examines benefits going to those who were killed or seriously injured in the 9/11 attacks and benefits to individuals and businesses in New York City that suffered losses from the attack on the World Trade Center.
Journal Article
Disagreement between lay and expert judgments about what constitutes emergency care under the prudent layperson standard.
Journal Article
Past studies on civil juries have been hampered by lack of data on verdicts spanning a sufficiently long period. Average jury awards tend to be highly variable from year to year, making it difficult to distinguish trends over relatively short periods of time. The authors use the longest time series of data on jury verdicts ever assembled: 40 years of data on tort cases in San Francisco County, CA and Cook County, IL collected by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice.
Report
Examines the dimensions of current asbestos litigation and the potential future effects of the litigation on the U.S. economy
Journal Article
In this article, the author comments on Professor Viscusi's analysis regarding a threat that punitive damages pose to economic efficiency.
Journal Article
A crisis in the litigation of cases involving managed care, should it come, will be ugly and costly.
Report
Argues that if the main purpose of punitive damages in product liability cases is to deter conduct that results in unsafe consumer products, the threat of punitive damages ought to be better targeted at the conduct of senior management, ...
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