attorney lawyer

Attorneys and Lawyers

An Overview of Policy Options
for Changing the Tort System

Various scholars and policy advocates have proposed altering the tort liability system to reduce what they see as excessive transaction costs and other problems associated with it. Those proposals are too numerous for all of them to be discussed here. Instead, this chapter examines a number of policy options to illustrate the range of choices available to lawmakers. The chapter outlines each option's potential implications for efficiency and equity. For reasons of space, however, it cannot analyze any one option in full detail. (For example, it does not consider the effects on state law or the potential transition problems associated with a particular change, nor does it discuss the many possibilities for combining policies that are not mutually exclusive.)

The options discussed here can be grouped according to their general approach. The first approach would greatly reduce the scope of the tort system and rely more heavily on other tools to control the costs of injuries. The second group contains options that are more incremental in nature but that could be applied broadly to the universe of torts. The final set comprises options targeted toward types of tort claims that have raised particular policy concerns, such as claims arising from medical malpractice or asbestos exposure and those litigated as class actions.

In all three groups, most of the proposals can be seen as addressing one or more of the fundamental barriers to efficiency discussed in Chapter 3:

The difficulty of giving both potential injurers and potential victims incentives to choose the efficient form and scale of their risk-related activities;

The added difficulty of optimally distributing (insuring) the risks that remain after efficient precautions have been taken; and

Problems relating to the cost and scarcity of information, including transaction costs, errors in judgments and in settlements, and inefficient standards for due care.
Other options respond to issues that arise from broader aspects of the legal system, such as the perceived problem that some locally elected judges are biased against out-of-state corporate defendants.

Options for Reducing the Scope of Tort Liability
The policy changes in this group--which involve replacing some or all types of tort liability with private or public insurance--generally go well beyond the kinds of proposals now being considered by the Congress. They are included here because they help clarify the strengths and weaknesses of the tort system or provide useful comparisons with other options.

Lawsuits Consumer Fraud

(St. Paul, Minn.: West Group, 1999), p. 926.
More...

Lawsuits Consumer Fraud

26, no. 2 (June 1997). 18. George L.
More...

New York Lawyers Information

Instead of pursuing only a selected subset of the alleged injurers (often just the single party with the deepest pockets) and shifting the costs of dealing with the remaining parties to that selected group, plaintiffs must sue everyone from whom they hope to collect damages.
More...

Lawsuits Consumer Fraud Class Actions Securities Lawyers - Complaint Center

This basically means that the victim is being accused of knowingly exposing themselves to the harm that ultimately injured them. Although one cannot consent to everything, e.g., murder, consent (if proven) can help the defendant defeat the victim's case. Finally, victims may be accused of contributing to their own injuries.
More...

Product Recall Safety Legal and Lawyer Attorney Resources

Consumer Product Safety Information: official website, including recalls, reports, lawyers, attorneys, class action, lawsuits, settlements and alerts such ... www.productrecallsafetyalerts.com/ - 20k -
More...

Product Recall Safety Legal and Lawyer Attorney Resources

Class Action Lawsuits Consumer Fraud Class Actions Securities Lawyers - Complaint Center

T.S. 320 (Oct. 21, 1994), and thus defines the scope of the United States' obligations under the treaty. See Relevance of Senate Ratification History to Treaty Interpretation, 11 Op. O.L.C. 28, 32-33 (1987).
More...

Class Action Lawsuit Lawyers and Attorneys - Pfizer maker of Celebrex

The Kahn Gauthier Law Group and Class Action Lawsuit Lawyers and Attorneys are investigating possible legal actions after medical studies raised concerns ... www.classactionamerica.com/affiliates/ gm/classactionlawsuit.asp?lngCaseID=1210 - 62k -
More...