Uncorrected

Authors

Janet Freilich, Boston University School of LawFollow
W. Nicholson Price II, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

ISSN

0006-8047

Publisher

Boston University School of Law

Language

en-US

Abstract

In addition to making rules and deciding outcomes, the legal system generates, curates and shares information. When the system gets rules and outcomes wrong, it is obviously a problem, and much effort (and scholarly attention) goes into identifying those mistakes and fixing them. But the system also gets information wrong; a problem mostly overlooked by policymakers and scholars. Those information mistakes matter too: they are prevalent and harmful. We show here that even when the mistakes are widely known and the errors broadly acknowledged, the information very often goes uncorrected. As a result, people make decisions based on bad information from a system that should be trustworthy and authoritative: builders build houses in mislabeled flood plains, patients use medical devices that are not really safe and effective, background checks disqualify potential employees based on crimes they did not commit, and inventors rely on falsified data in patent disclosures, to name a few. Why are so many legal information mistakes uncorrected? We identify multiple reasons, including lack of support for public correction mechanisms, lack of robust private mechanisms, challenges in communication between institutions, and an overreliance on self-interest. An underlying problem, though, is that information mistakes just are not given enough focus as the major trans-substantive problem they are. That is its own mistake, because in a world where an increasing number of decisions incorporate an increasing amount of information, mistakes in that information matter more and more. Thankfully, technology makes that task somewhat easier, as does increased attention toward improving incentives and allocating responsibility. It is worth tackling the problem of the legal system’s uncorrected information mistakes; this Article charts steps in that direction.

Comments

forthcoming 2026

Recommended Citation

Janet Freilich & W. N. Price II, Uncorrected , Boston University Law Review (2026).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4136