George Mason University

The Searle Civil Justice Institute has commissioned a task force of leading law & economics scholars and empirical economists to evaluate the legal and economic impact of the heightened pleading standard resulting from the Supreme Court’s Twombly and Iqbal decisions.

There is general agreement that the Supreme Court’s decisions in Twombly and Iqbal modified the pleading standard established over 50 years ago in Conley v. Gibson. However, there is significant disagreement among practitioners and academics as to both the magnitude and the nature of the impact of the new standard. Advocates of heightened pleading contend that the change will reduce the frequency of frivolous lawsuits while narrowing the scope and lowering the costs of discovery. Opponents of heightened pleading argue that it will reduce or eliminate access to the legal system for both low-quality and meritorious cases alike.

The Searle Civil Justice Institute aims to improve on existing scholarship by empirically examining the impact of this heightened pleading standard. The Task Force will collect and analyze data from a large sample of cases in order to develop a fact-based understanding of the impact of heightened pleading on the share of cases reaching discovery as well as the quality of cases that do not reach discovery.

The Searle Civil Justice Institute Task Force on Measuring the Effects of a Heightened Pleading Standard Under Twombly and Iqbal will produce a comprehensive, peer-reviewed Policy Report in 2012. Members of the task force include:

• Jonah B. Gelbach, Senior Research Fellow, Yale University Department of Economics
• Matthew S. Brockmeier, Policy & Research Associate, Law & Economics Center

For additional information regarding the Searle Civil Justice Institute or this Task Force please call 703-993-8040.