The Advanced Settlement Search allows users to search for settlements in Proposition 65 cases using several different criteria.
Basically, how the search works is that when a term is entered into a field, instances of that term will be retrieved. For example, searching for "Mateel" in the Case Name field will retrieve all records where Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation is the plaintiff.
If you wish to limit the search further, you could, for example, enter SF in the Court field, which would limit the search to San Francisco Superior Court. It is possible to narrow the search further yet, by using a date range, for example, or by specifying other criteria.
Below is a Field-by-Field Explanation of how the Search Works.
Also included are links to an explanation of abbreviations used for various courts and organizations that you may encounter.
Case Number: Search this field by entering any part of a case number you have available. For example, a search for "985" will retrieve any cases that contain that number somewhere in the case number. As always, using a broader search to begin with will more likely return the results you want.
Case Name: Search this field by entering any part of a case name you have available. For example, a search for "CEH" will retrieve any cases that contain that name somewhere in the name. Because of the many organizations associated with Proposition 65, Prop 65 News has adopted conventions for acronyms in the naming of cases and plaintiffs organization. For a complete guide to abbreviations for these organizations, and the various courts, click here.
Court: Search this field by entering the abbreviated court name. For example, a search for "SF" will retrieve records of settlements entered in San Francisco Superior Court and "LA" will retrieve settlement entered in Los Angeles. For a complete list of court abbreviations click here.
Attorney Fees, Civil Penalties, Restitution and Lump Sum: This group of fields work the same way, and are related. They allow you to search for a dollar range if you wish to narrow your search using that criteria. When left blank, they return records with all dollar values. Because Proposition 65 settlements often shift where you might expect values to be, it is important to be aware that designating values in these fields will limit your results set. For example, if you were searching for a case or cases based on Civil Penalties and selected a range of $10,000 to 1,000,000 the results might not be as expected, because the values in the cases you wanted to retrieve were actually designated as Restitution or an In Lieu of (Lump Sum) values.
Filing Date Range: Search this field by designating a date range for when a settlement was entered by the court. Example of date format: 06/15/1996.
Search Terms : This field searches every field on the form for instances of the search term entered. This is the best choice for when you are unsure of which field the information you are searching for may be located.
Common Questions and Answers about Settlement Search Results
Question: Why do a number of the parties in the results have $0.00 listed in the settlement amounts?
Answer: There are several reasons why this may happen. The searches return all of the defendants in any case where a settlement has been entered. Often only some of the parties have settled, while litigation continues with the remaining defendants. Another reason this happens, is that often a parent company will settle the claims for its subsidiaries. Likewise, some defendants are dismissed from a multi-party case for any number of reasons.