When Secrecy Kills

Courts too often shield information about products and toxic conditions that put our lives at risk.

The Public Right to Know Act (SB 1149) brings transparency to the courts.

Authored by Senator Connie M. Leyva and co-sponsored by Public Justice and Consumer Reports, this bill will ensure Californians are able to learn the facts about dangerous public hazards that are discovered during litigation, ensuring that this vital information cannot be secretly concealed or routinely restricted by over-broad court orders or settlements.

Below are resources and more information on the far-reaching impact of court secrecy. If you live in California, or know someone who does, please contact your senator and Governor Gavin Newsom and urge them to support this bill.

• Click here to view our letter to California Assemblymembers on proposed new amendments to SB 1149, addressing concerns raised by legislators 
• Click here to view our response to the Chamber of Commerce and CJAC’s August 4 opposition letter (updated as of August 8, 2022)
• Click here to view our supporters’ joint floor alert (updated as of August 8, 2022)
• Click here to view our joint fact sheet with Consumer Attorneys of California (updated as of August 2, 2022)
• Click here to view our reply to the Chamber of Commerce and CJAC’s opposition letter (updated as of May 13, 2022)
• Click here to view our Senate floor alert (updated as of May 13, 2022)

Coverage

• Harmful products don’t deserve shielding by the courts
• California bill to expose dangerous secrets passes Assembly Judiciary
• The ‘Public Right to Know Act’ is the first step in staunching trauma and death
• California’s ‘Public Right to Know Act’ would require sunshine on public hazards, protecting honest businesses
• Lies + Defects + Secrecy = Death Say Supporters of the ‘Public Right to Know Act’

Resources

Court Secrecy Kills: Case Examples

Click through the different tabs to read about cases across the country, in which hazardous information on defective or misleading products had harmful – and sometimes even deadly – consequences.