Charles M. Silver
GET UPDATES FROM Charles M. Silver
Professor Silver holds the Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair at the University of Texas School of Law, where he writes and teaches about civil procedure, professional responsibility and, increasingly, health care law and policy.

Professor Silver has coauthored a series of studies of medical malpractice litigation in Texas, most of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. These articles include

The Impact of the 2003 Texas Medical Malpractice Damages Cap on Physician Supply and Insurer Payouts: Separating Facts from Rhetoric, 44 The Advocate 25 (2008) (with David A. Hyman and Bernard Black);

Estimating the Effect of Damage Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases: Evidence from Texas, J. Legal Analysis (2008) (with David A. Hyman, Bernard S. Black, and William M. Sage);

Defense Costs and Insurer Reserves in Medical Malpractice and Other Personal Injury Cases: Evidence from Texas, 1988-2004, 10 Amer. Law & Econ. Rev. 185 (2008) (with Bernard Black, David A. Hyman, and William M. Sage); and

Malpractice Payouts and Malpractice Insurance: Evidence from Texas Closed Claims, 1990-2003, 33 Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice 177-192 (2008) (with David A. Hyman, Bernard S. Black, William M. Sage and Kathryn Zeiler).

Professor Silver also writes about civil procedure, complex litigation, and the professional responsibilities of attorneys. Recent writings in these areas include

The Quasi-Class Action Method of Managing Multi-District Litigations: Problems and a Proposal, Vanderbilt Law Review (forthcoming 2010) (with Geoffrey P. Miller); and

Incentivizing Institutional Investors to Serve as Lead Plaintiffs in Securities Fraud Class Actions, 57 DePaul Law Review 471 (2008) (with Sam Dinkin.

In 2009, the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association honored Professor Silver with the Robert McKay Award for outstanding scholarship in tort and insurance law. In 1997, Professor Silver received the Texas Excellence in Teaching Award, of which he is especially proud.

Professor Silver is currently an Associate Reporter on the American Law Institute's Project on Aggregate Litigation and a member of the ABA/TIPS Task Force on the Contingent Fee. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the Vanderbilt University Law School.

Blog Entries by Charles M. Silver

The Controversy Surrounding the Criminal Probe into the Gulf Oil Spill

Posted July 19, 2010 | 23:43:01 (EST)

Now that oil is no longer pouring into the Gulf, everyone can breathe easier --except the people responsible for the spill. They may go to prison. The Justice Department has a criminal investigation underway. Admittedly, governmental investigations of business torts are more likely to result in fines than prison time....

Read Post

A New Model for Mass Torts?

Posted June 21, 2010 | 15:52:30 (EST)

I have to laugh when I hear Minority Leader John Boehner and other Republicans say that "BP should be held accountable for the full cost of [the] disaster" in the Gulf of Mexico. These are the same politicians who have forced tort reform down our throats for decades. The object...

Read Post