Legal Research

"Tort Laws that Save Americans the Most Money"

Source: Pacific Research Institute

The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most.

The analysis identifies 18 reforms to state civil-justice systems that significantly reduce tort losses and/or tort insurance premiums. The cumulative effect of reforms across all tort categories is a 47-percent reduction in losses and a 16-percent reduction in insurance premiums for consumers. "Our study helps state legislators and legal reformers identify which tort reforms produce the biggest bang for the buck," said Lawrence J. McQuillan, PhD, project director and PRI director of Business and Economic Studies.

When tort reforms are ordered according to each reform's ability to reduce aggregate tort losses, the top eight reforms are:

1. attorney-retention sunshine (12-percent reduction)
2. Daubert rule (10 percent)
3. frivolous lawsuits (7 percent)
4. jury service (6 percent)
5. appeal-bond caps (4 percent)
6. negligence standard (3 percent)
7. non-economic-damage caps (2 percent)
8. medical-malpractice damage caps (1 percent)

+ Full Report (PDF; 555 KB)

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).