Civil Justice Reports & Studies

Below are selected articles, reports, studies, and testimony on efforts to restrict consumer access to the civil justice system. These resources are organized by date. Select the date range below that interests you or read the topics within a date to find what you need. For the latest factsheets and information, please visit the Civil Justice System Press Kit.

Present | 2002-2004 | 1999-2001 | 1996-1998 | 1990-1995 | Pre-1990

You may contact Media.Replies@justice.org with any questions.

2005

• Federal Tort Trials and Verdicts, 2002-03, Thomas H. Cohen (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, August 17, 2005)
  • Summary: New Study Contradicts Claims of "Litigation Explosion"
    
    
• "Briefing Paper: Frivolous Case for Tort Law Change," Lawrence Chimerine and Ross Eisenbrey (Economic Policy Institute, May 2005)
  • Summary: New Study Exposes "Tort Tax" As Fabrication of Insurance Industry
    
    
• Report of a Survey of United States District Judges: Experiences and Views Concerning Rule 11, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Judicial Center, April 2005)
  • Summary: Federal Judges Have Few Concerns About "Frivolous" Lawsuits

2002-2004

• "Hidden Victims of Tort Reform: Women, Children, and the Elderly," 53 Emory L.J. 1263. (Lucinda Finley, Summer 2004)
  
  
• Response to Liability Costs for Small Businesses (Chamber of Commerce, 6/04)
  
  
• Response to US Tort Costs 2004 Update by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin (1/05)
  • Read No Scholar Will Cite Tillinghast: What Others Are Saying for more information
  • Read Tillinghast Finally Admits Figures Do Not Reflect Costs of the Legal System (Center for Justice & Democracy, 1/13/05)
    
    
• Top 10 Zany Immunity Law Awards, 2004 (Center for Justice & Democracy, 12/13/04)
  
  
• Corporate Hypocrisy in Accessing the Courts (Public Citizen, 10/04)
  
  
• The Insurance Information Institute's Latest Publication Misleads the Public (9/04)
  
  
• Examining the Work of State Courts, 2003 (National Center for State Courts, 2004)
  
  
• Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001, Thomas H. Cohen, Steven K. Smith (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004)
  

• The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law (Commonweal Institute, 10/03)
  
  
• Tort Reform's Threat to an Independent Judiciary 33 Rutgers L.J. 835 (Robert S. Peck, 2003)
  

• Taming the Tort Monster: The American Civil Justice System as a Battleground of Social Theory. Brooklyn Law Review.(Michael L. Rustad & Thomas H. Koenig, Fall 2002)
  
  
• Mass Tort: Rewriting The Rules For Class Actions: Rulemaking has Become Another Front in the Tort 'Reform' Wars, 38 Trial 18 (James E. Rooks Jr., 2/02)

1999-2001

• Web Site Launched to Disclose Scientists' Links to Industry (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 5/01)
  
  
• Defending the American System of Justice: Tort 'Reform' Laws Threaten to Rend the Carefully Woven Cloth of Constitutional Government, 37 Trial 18 (Robert S. Peck, 4/01)
  
  
• Nothing For Free: How Private Judicial Seminars Are Undermining Environmental Protections And Breaking The Public Trust (Community Rights Counsel, 7/00)
  Summary: Corporate Junkets For Judges Exposed (4/01)
  
  
• In Defense of Fundamental Principles: The Unconstitutionality of Tort 'Reform' 31 Seton Hall L. Rev. 672 (Robert S. Peck, 2001)
  
  
• Smoke Signals From Private Attorneys General in Mega Social Policy Cases. DePaul Law Review. (Michael L. Rustad, Winter 2001)
  
  
• The Civil Jury: 200 Years Under Siege A Historical Retrospective Reveals the Importance of Preserving the Right of Each Citizen to a Trial by Jury, 36 Trial 18 (Jeffrey Robert White, 6/00)
  
  
• Important Civil Trials of The Millennium: It's Been a Long Road From Trial by Combat to Trial by Jury, 36 Trial 62 (Jeffrey Robert White, 3/00).
  
• Tort 'Reform' 1999: A Building Without a Foundation, 27 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 397 (Robert S. Peck, Richard Marshall, & Kenneth D. Kranz, 2/00) Summary: Florida State University Law Review Article Refutes Tort 'Reform' Claims
  
  
• An Accident and a Dream: Misinformation, Misstatement, and Misunderstanding About Civil Justice System, 20 Pace L. Rev. 339 (Daniel J. Capra, 2000).
  
  
• Susette M. Talarico, & Richard E. Dunn, Another Brick in the Wall: An Empirical Look at Georgia Tort Litigation in the 1990s, 34 Ga. L. Rev. 1049 (Thomas A. Eaton, 2000).
  
  
• Tort Trials and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996 (Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for State Courts, 2000)
  Summary: Government Study Debunks Tort Reformer' Misinformation (8/25/00)
  
  
• Is the Tort System in Crisis? New Empirical Evidence, 60 Ohio St. L.J. 315 (Deborah Jones Merritt & Kathryn Ann Barry, 1999)