Covering accident costs : insurance, liability, and tort reform
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Covering accident costs : insurance, liability, and tort reform
Temple University Press, 1995
- : cloth
- : pbk
Available at 18 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Over the past century, tort law and insurance have developed deeply intertwined legal and economic roots. Insurance usually determines whether tort cases are brought to trial, whom plaintiffs sue, how much they claim, who provides the defense, how the case gets litigated, the dynamics of the settlement, and how much plaintiffs ultimately recover. But to what extent should liability rules be influenced by insurance? In this study, Mark Rahdert identifies the leading arguments both in favor of and against what he terms the "insurance rationale"-the idea that tort law should be structured to facilitate victim access to assured compensation. The insurance rationale has been a leading force in the development of product liability law and, as a component of accident compensation, has significantly influenced pro-plaintiff advances in principal areas of tort law. However, the insurance rationale is also the source of great controversy. Critics charge that liability rules deliberately set to maximize plaintiffs' access to insurance funds have corrupted the system, causing insurance costs to spiral upward uncontrollably.
Considering the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the current debate, Rahdert develops a modified version of the insurance rationale that can become a tool for evaluating future tort reform proposals.
Table of Contents
Introduction Part I: The Insurance Rationale for Tort Liability in Legal Theory 1. The Early History of the Insurance Rationale 2. Emergence of a General Insurance Rationale: The Triumph of Legal Realism 3. The Insurance Rationale Decried: The Theoretical Underpinnings of the Current Movement for Tort Reform 4. The Role of Insurance in Tort Liability: Some Preliminary Lessons from Scholarship Part II: The Insurance Rationale for Tort Liability in Practice 5. Judicial and Legislative Approaches to the Insurance Rationale 6. Some Prominent Examples of the Insurance Rationale in Practice 7. Summary of Principal Themes Part III: The Insurance Rationale, the Liability Insurance Crisis, and the Future of Tort Reform 8. The Insurance Rationale and the Late Liability Insurance Crisis 9. The Insurance Rationale Reconsidered 10. The Insurance Rationale and the Future of Tort Reform Notes Index
by "Nielsen BookData"