Actuarial Litigation: How Statistics Can Help Resolve Big Cases

Sponsored by the Insurance Law Center and the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

When a drug is alleged to harm large numbers of patients, a credit card company charges its many customers allegedly undisclosed fees for international transactions, or numerous people experience illnesses they claim result from exposure to toxins, plaintiffs bring large numbers of lawsuits. Defendants’ and plaintiffs’ lawyers are continually refining methods for resolving such large-scale disputes. Increasingly, they rely on statistical techniques to do so. The questions for this conference are what are the appropriate techniques for resolving such cases? How do they resemble what insurance companies already do? Are they fair? What legal limitations exist on such settlements and how (if at all) should the law change to better accommodate these changes on the ground? This conference brings together special masters, insurance professionals, economists, political scientists and legal scholars to discuss how risk is quantified in litigation, especially high value, large-scale complex cases such as mass torts, consumer class actions and antitrust suits.

Keynote Address:

Kenneth R. Feinberg

Founder and Managing Partner, Feinberg Rozen LLP, Author of What is Life Worth? (Public Affairs Press, 2005). Among his many accomplishments, Kenneth Feinberg is the Administrator of the BP Claims Fund and was the Special Master of the Federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.

Conference Agenda

Other speakers include:

Robert G. Bone, University of Texas Law School

Edward K. Cheng, Vanderbilt Law School

Howard Erichson, Fordham Law School

Deborah Hensler, Stanford Law School

Samuel Issacharoff, New York University Law School

Joseph B. Kadane, Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Statistics

Francis McGovern, Duke Law School

Adam Scales, Washington & Lee School of Law

Alex Stein, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided to those who register by April 8, 2011. Registration is free.

*Approved for NY CLE Credit

This program is appropriate for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys (Course #TRT0325).

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.

To register for this event please RSVP via our rsvp form.

For other inquiries, call Patricia Carbray at (860) 570-5184 or send an e-mail to patricia.carbray@uconn.edu. Out-of-town guests may book rooms at the Hartford Downtown Marriott.

If you require reasonable accommodations for a disability, please contact Jane Thierfeld Brown at (860) 570-5130 at least two weeks in advance.