# AZ Permits Disclosure of Settlement 

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Litigants that settle product liability and fraud lawsuits in Arizona no longer automatically have the final say on the kind of information that they can keep secret from the public. 
Effective Dec. 1, that decision falls to state trial judges if someone not involved in the litigation seeks to obtain evidence produced during discovery in the case. The Arizona Supreme Court issued the change in the state‘s civil procedures on Oct. 28. 

In considering such a motion from the public, a trial judge must weigh "any possible risk to the public health, safety or financial welfare to which such information or materials may relate or reveal," the state‘s high court said. The burden of proof, however, rests with the party filing the motion for disclosure. 

States are split on whether settling litigants may decide themselves the kinds of information that they can keep secret.

Sources:
- Business Insurance (http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=1625)