Program

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) and the Berkeley Law Civil Justice Research Initiative (CJRI) have assembled a distinguished group of attorneys, judges, and scholars to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the court system. How have the pandemic and social distancing practices affected the state and federal courts’ ability to adequately conduct civil jury trials? How have our adaptations to the crisis affected the amount of time needed to resolve litigated disputes? What impact could the pandemic have on federal and state court civil rules? How different will civil litigation look post pandemic? Join our experts including Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law), Paula Hannaford-Agor (Director of the Center for Jury Studies, National Center for State Courts), and Bridget Mary McCormack (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan) to explore the rapidly changing legal environment.

This special event has been made possible by the generosity of the American Association for Justice Robert L. Habush Endowment.

About the RAND Institute for Civil Justice

For more than 40 years, the RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) has made the civil justice system more efficient and equitable by supplying government, private decisionmakers, and the public with objective, empirically-based, analytic research. The 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. In recent years, we have expanded our agenda to include cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

About the Civil Justice Research Initiative

The Civil Justice Research Initiative (CJRI) is a think tank chaired by Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law School and Founding Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. CJRI Berkeley is housed at Berkeley Law under the management of Executive Director, Anne Bloom. The organization’s Advisory Board, chaired by attorney Roman Silberfeld, Executive Board Member of Robins Kaplan LLP, includes prominent attorneys in private practice from around the United States as well as established legal scholars and researchers from prominent law schools around the country.

CJRI’s mission is to systematically identify and produce highly credible, unbiased research on critical issues concerning the civil justice system, including expanding access to justice. Research focuses on the growing limits on access to the court system, including inadequate funding of state and federal courts; increased use of compulsory arbitration clauses; restrictions on class-action lawsuits; and limits on punitive damages. The Initiative also examines potential remedies to help level the judicial playing field for litigants. These efforts ensure that leaders, legislators and courts have the factual research and data they need to set policy to ensure continued access to the courts.

Register for This Program

Please register online. For further information, contact ICJevents@rand.org.

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