UCLA Law School, Rand Corp. to pry into judicial secrecy

[babylonsister]

UCLA Law School joins others to pry into judicial secrecy

With the Rand Corp., an alliance is formed to study confidentiality in the civil justice system.
By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 3, 2007

UCLA Law School and the Rand Corp. launched an alliance Friday to study secrecy in the nation's civil justice system.

Attorneys and legal scholars spent the day at a conference at the law school debating just how much secrecy there is and whether any of it is justified.

"This subject could not be more timely," said UCLA Law School Dean Michael Schill. "Transparency in our civil justice system is incredibly important for its legitimacy." At the same time, he said, privacy trumps transparency on some occasions.

Michael Rich, Rand's executive vice president, expressed dismay that in recent years the civil justice system has seemed to be moving away from public scrutiny, with fewer trials being held, more private judges operating outside the normal court system and a proliferation of cases settled with confidentiality agreements.

"If the system is more opaque, it makes policy analysis more difficult and makes the system more susceptible to ideology," Rich said.

Los Angeles plaintiffs' lawyer Tom Girardi talked at length about the difficulties of deciding whether to settle cases confidentially.

Girardi said he is troubled by a confidentiality agreement he signed 25 years ago on behalf of a boy who alleged he was molested by a Catholic priest. As a Catholic who attended Catholic schools for his entire education, Girardi said he had doubts about the client's claims at the time.

Then when the massive pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church came to public light, Girardi said he learned that the priest had molested 17 kids. "My confidentiality agreement" probably had negative consequences for all of these kids, Girardi acknowledged.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-secrecy3nov03,1,1247556.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true

[flashl]

1. UCLA and Rand?

Isn't that something as obscene like expecting "good" results after cross-breeding a dog and dolphin?

[Cassandra]

2. RAND does manage to do some good work...

on subjects you wouldn't think they are interested in.

[flashl]

3. I am highly suspicious of this venture

and Rand that I respected at one time.

There are organizations like the VERA institute that can readily provide this information.