Dozens of plaintiff lawyers told Reuters they feel compelled to go along with entrenched court secrecy. The main reason, they said, is their duty to their clients, as spelled out in state bar association rules. Many plaintiffs have suffered catastrophic injuries and other hardships and literally can’t afford to wait for disputes over what can and can’t be made public as bills mount. Of course, such delays can also be costly to the lawyers, who get paid only when a case is settled or decided in their favor.

As Reuters reported in June, judges regularly allow information pertinent to public health and safety to be filed under seal, even though court documents are, by law, presumed to be public. In nearly all jurisdictions, judges are required to provide an on-the-record rationale for allowing litigants to file information under seal — to protect trade secrets, for example, or an individual’s medical records — but they rarely do that.

In its analysis, Reuters found that information pertinent to public health and safety was filed under seal in 55 of the 115 biggest product liability cases consolidated in federal courts over the past 20 years. These mega-cases, known as multidistrict litigation (MDL), involved products used by millions of consumers. Read more