Public data in lawsuits

March 2005
California personal injury lawyers would like the ability to determine what becomes public in a lawsuit by being able to overturn a judge’s authority to make this decision. According to personal injury lawyers, the personal and business documents collected in a lawsuit should be able to be used at trial because it conceals health and safety information.

Others disagree saying the information open to scrutiny by the press and public will allow more lawsuits to be developed. The information, according to personal injury lawyers, is important because it affects the public on sometimes very large scales – such as with the 2000 Firestone tire debacle that left more than 200 people killed, hundreds injured and 6.5 million tires recalled.