Many are praising a judge's recent refusal to seal a medical malpractice settlement and are encouraging others to take the same stance. The judge's decision in the case went against the common practice within the legal community of allowing medical malpractice settlements of lawsuits to be filed confidentially.
Defendants often request medical malpractice settlements be confidential and try to make settlement contingent on a confidentiality provision.
Paul Lyon, spokesman for the Committee for Justice for All, stated "in medical cases, the practice puts the public at risk by shielding sub-par physicians from public disclosure of their mistakes."