Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:18:05.338Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Judges as Bulwarks and Nudgers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2019

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access

Summary

Using illustrations from proceedings over Pradaxa, Yasmin/Yaz, Zimmer’s Durom Hip Cups, and the World Trade Center disaster, this chapter narrates some of the judicial nudges lurking behind the following statistics: a mere 8 percent of judges in the dataset took no steps whatsoever to endorse, promote, or enforce private deals. Instead, 64.7 percent of judges presiding over private aggregate settlements formally appointed the private claims administrator or settlement master. And, to varying degrees, 52.9 percent of federal judges “approved” private settlements, blurring conventional wisdom that private settlements are just that – private. Settlement designers hope that a judicial imprimatur will persuade nonlead lawyers and plaintiffs alike to settle, so they ask judges to intervene in some explicit or implicit way. But judges often lack the information they need to send reliable signals and conduct no formal inquiries to determine whether settlements are fair. Plus, when judges use their power to approve, enforce, and push plaintiffs into private settlements, they not only appear to exceed the authority that rightly belongs to them, they may also impinge on plaintiffs’ free will to consent.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mass Tort Deals
Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation
, pp. 99 - 133
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×