The inmate riot-related lawsuits involved alleged violations of the right to Eighth Amendment protection against the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, specifically the failure of staff to protect inmates both before and after the riots. Further, inmates charged physical and psychological abuses and hardships that resulted from crowding and lack of food and clothing. As the volume of cases increased and more and more attorneys and staff were drawn into the response process, it became clear that a more efficient method of managing post- emergency litigation was necessary. Much of the difficulty in preparing a defense for the lawsuits was due to faulty memory, the lack of physical evidence to support staff, inaccurate documentation, lack of staff familiarity with the judicial process, and staff stress when appearing in court. The author proposes a planning model that is sensitive to the demands of event reconstruction. The model is called the Post-emergency Litigation Response (PELR) model. PELR is designed to minimize or eliminate the aforementioned major event reconstruction problems. The PELR model provides for pre-emergency legal training of staff, decision documentation during an emergency, establishment of a multiagency litigation response team, preparation of staff prior to testimony, counseling support for staff called to testify, and mandatory posttrial debriefing. Each of these elements of the model is discussed in relation to the Camp Hill riots. 2 references