Research Roundtable on Fraudulent and Abusive Litigation Coordination Tactics and Offensive Claims to Combat Them

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This roundtable will examine how a successful plaintiffs’ action requires a plaintiff victim of a wrong, a lawyer willing and properly incentivized to represent them, medical health professionals who examine injuries, a variety of experts available to help meet the evidentiary burden to establish a claim, and courts and juries willing to accept the theories presented and believe the evidence meets the burdens of proof. Coordinated legal strategy to try to pull all these pies together is a hallmark of the modern civil justice system. Few would doubt this. Increasingly though, there are claims that coordination strategies have sometimes moved beyond the ethical and legal. Some tactics have come under increasing scrutiny, with accusations that some actors are illegally manufacturing claims—such as with staged accidents and compliant medical professionals, falsified records or untruthful assertions under the not unrealistic assumption they might never get tested, efforts to funnel clients (with arguably minor or nonexistent injuries) to predetermined medical providers to receive unnecessary medical procedures or to run up inflated medical bills and settlement demands, and the like—or using legal filings not to right wrongs but instead filing in tortious ways or for wrongful purposes—such as to defame defendants or for anti-competitive purposes. Recently, several entities who might traditionally or usually be defendants in the tort system have decided to fight back—finding innovative ways to go on the offense against these purportedly wrongful actors (who typically would otherwise be on the plaintiffs’ side of the “v”).

A commitment to participate in person at the research roundtable is required for an author’s application to be considered, and such participation is required, among other submission obligations, in order to receive the honorarium.

A list of potential paper topics is listed below:

•  Are these real problems demanding solutions or are they solutions in search of a problem?
• Civil RICO and state racketeering equivalents, antitrust, defamation, libel, and others are recently being tried and tested as offense-based litigation vehicles to deal with these illegal and unethical practices. Are these appropriate vehicles for such “offensive” actions?  Are such claims viable?
• Do these vehicles and causes of action fit their newly intended purposes? In other words, do the text, scope and purposes of these existing common law or statutory vehicles support these new applications?
• What other vehicles have not yet been identified but might be conceived of by entrepreneurial legal minds?
• Should courts embrace these theories if facts can be established to prove them?
• Do we need legislation that could create better, more suitable vehicles to deter unethical or illegal plaintiffs-side behavior?
• What defenses are available to the targets of these new offensive lawsuits?
• What are the drivers for the claimed questionable tactics coming under increasing scrutiny? Are settlement dynamics and the overloaded court dockets, or the availability of third-party litigation financing, incentivizing questionably legal or ethical tactics?
• Will the increased acceptance or viability of these kinds of offense-based remedies chill valid claims or is it more likely to effectively deter non-meritorious plaintiffs’ claims?
• How should we understand the availability of these kinds of vehicles as a matter of parity to better balance the power dynamics in the modern civil justice system?

Successful paper proposals will address these questions and topics. Authors should make a point of explaining where their research will fill gaps in the existing research and literature.

Authors of accepted proposals will receive an honorarium of $8,000 – $12,000 per project, variable upon the rigor and depth of the scholarly paper and research commitments involved.

Dates and Deadlines

1.  Submission of Research Proposal – Submission Deadline of August 3, 2026: 

• Paper proposals will be considered, and acceptances granted on a rolling basis, so early submission is encouraged. The absolute deadline for proposals is Monday, August 3, 2026 at 5:00 pm EST.
• Proposals should include a brief abstract of the proposed paper and should address the feasibility of completion by the required deadlines. Proposals should be no longer than three pages. Successful applicants will be notified by Monday, August 17, 2026.
• Paper proposals should be accompanied by an updated CV and a link to the author’s website bio. Prior work in this field should also be highlighted where appropriate.

2.  Research Roundtable, (November 13 to November 15, 2026):

• Selected authors will present well-developed drafts of their papers at a private research roundtable in an easily-accessible city to be designated soon. This research roundtable is designed to provide authors with constructive feedback from expert academics and practitioners in the field. In addition to the paper, authors are expected to serve as commentators on all papers. The research roundtable will also provide at least one additional commentator per paper who will join the roundtable. This peer review process ensures every draft paper undergoes significant scrutiny and receives substantial feedback for improvement. Research roundtable drafts should represent substantial work beyond the proposal, and they should be suitable for presentation at a faculty workshop. Authors chosen to present will be provided an honorarium of $4,000 per paper after timely submission of their draft and presentation of their work at the November roundtable. Roundtable drafts will be circulated to participants two weeks prior to the roundtable and are therefore due by October 30, 2026.

3.  Completion of final draft, posting to SSRN, submission to a suitable academic journal, and draft and commitment to submit to publication of an op-ed (February 1, 2027): 

• Authors are expected to complete a final draft, post their paper to SSRN, and draft and commit to submit an op-ed for publication by February 1, 2027. The LEC will also host these drafts on its website (masonlec.org). Upon completion of these requirements, authors will receive a final honorarium for the remaining balance of $4,000 – $8,000 per paper. As a condition of receiving final payment, authors must commit to seek publication in a suitable academic journal by February 1, 2027.

In addition to providing honoraria, the LEC will provide lodging and group meals at the Research Roundtable. Participants will be responsible for their own transportation arrangements and expenses.

To submit a proposal for the Roundtable, please apply here. For questions about the Roundtable, please contact Gwendolyn Watson at [email protected] or 703-993-8388.

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The LEC’s Henry G. Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies promotes law and economics scholarship by funding faculty research, convening research roundtables, and hosting policy-relevant academic workshops and conferences.

Established in 2010 to honor the legacy of Henry G. Manne – legendary former Dean of the Antonin Scalia Law School, founder of the Law & Economics Center, and one of the founding fathers of the law and economics movement – the program seeks to improve the quality of legal scholarship by offering educational workshops on important and topical areas of study.

In addition to its core constituency of academics, Manne Program events also attract attendance from the policy community, including economists and lawyers from federal agencies, Capitol Hill, state government offices, and the non-profit and for-profit research sectors.