SACRAMENTO — The last time state legislators tried to end secret settlements, in 2001, they had the backing of the plaintiff bar and the celebrity of Erin Brockovich. Their bill, SB 11, sailed through the Senate before hitting a squall of resistance from business and tech interests in the state Assembly and dying without a vote.
One legislator believes the climate is different today. Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, last week introduced AB 1700, aimed at making public “evidence concerning a public danger � discovered in the course of litigation.”
