Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, introduced the Sunshine in Litigation Act of 2010 in order to stop preventable injuries, accidents and deaths caused by lack of public access to critical consumer information. The bill would restore public accountability in our judicial system by ensuring that public health and safety are properly taken into account when decisions are made about keeping information concerning public health or safety issues discovered in litigation secret.

“Timely disclosure of dangerous or defective products can mean the difference between life and death or serious injury,” said Nadler. “It is unconscionable that businesses are able to protect their own interests over public health and safety. My legislation will ensure that we balance the confidentiality needs of corporations with the necessity to protect people from dangerous or malfunctioning products.”

As a condition of settling product liability cases, businesses often demand that individuals agree to secrecy provisions which prohibit them from disclosing any public health and safety hazards uncovered during litigation. Over the last decade, companies that settled product liability cases were able to repeatedly conceal injuries and deaths associated with everyday products like automobile tires, magnetic toys, collapsing baby cribs, and prescription drugs. There are likely many more sealed cases and documents and each one could be hiding another dangerous product or pattern of negligent conduct. Sealing all litigation records without any regard to their impact on public health and safety endangers consumers and encourages corporate wrongdoing.