Editorial: Let’s throw sunshine on secret settlements

Monday, Sept. 9, 2002 | 8:35 a.m.

It was encouraging to read in The New York Times last Monday that South Carolina's 10 federal judges have voted unanimously to bar secret legal settlements. The federal judges there believe that such secrecy in the past has made courts complicit in shrouding the truth about harmful products, negligent doctors and sexually abusive clergy. The Times also reported that it is believed that this ban on secret settlements is the strictest in the federal courts. Still, the South Carolina ban is limited since most of the kinds of cases that the public should know about, such as product liability cases, are filed in state court where the ban doesn't apply.

The South Carolina federal judges are on the right track, but to make a nationwide impact, it will require state legislatures across the nation to pass laws banning secret court settlements. If Nevada is any indication, it won't be easy. During the 2001 Nevada Legislature, business interests helped defeat a bill that would have barred judges from sealing the details of court settlements involving public hazards. But we hope that when the Nevada Legislature meets again in February, that state lawmakers follow the lead of South Carolina's federal judges. When people stand to be injured or even killed from unsafe products or individuals, the public has a right to know.