Tort Reform Tort reform is very controversial issue. From the plaintiff’s perspective, tort reforms seems to take liability away from places such as insurance companies and hospitals which could at times leave the plaintiff without defense. From the defendant’s perspective, tort reform provides a defense from extremely large punitive damage awards. There seems to be no median between the two. Neither side will be satisfied. With the help of affiliations such as the American Tort Reform Association and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, many businesses and corporations are working to change the current tort system to stop these high cash awards. Various organizations working in favor of tort reform include the …show more content…
It consists of people living in communities joining together to try to stop the “high cost and injustice in our legal system” (American Tort Reform Association). Located throughout the United States, the CALA is fighting to eliminate the high payouts for circumstantial cases (American Tort Reform Association). The ATRA and CALA are trying to stop minor cases from receiving enormous sums of money which will dampen the economy. The subject matter of these cases varies to some length including but not limited to medical and car insurance. In a case against Rich Mountain Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of Mena, jurors found the defendant, Mena, guilty of malpractice in the death of Margaretha Sauer, a ninety-three year old woman. The non-economic punitive damages cash award for the suffering and pain of the Sauer family to be paid by Mena was seventy-eight million dollars. Punitive damages is one of the issues that the ATRA is trying to combat. If nursing homes continue to have pay large sums for punitive damages, they will not be able to survive. The premium average liability offered by nursing homes has increased from $820,000 in 1999 to $11.6 million in 2001. With the liability premiums continuing to rise, the prospects of profits continue to dwindle. They will have no chance at retaining a profit and thus will have to close. It will also mean that doctors will charge more for their services, which leads to fewer health insurances carrying
ASSAULT, BATTERY AND FALSE IMPRISONMENT ARE EXAMPLES OF ____ TORTS THAT INVOLVE INTERFERENCE WITH A PERSON'S BODY.
A.B 458 was presented by Jason Mills, representing the Nevada Justice Association. The purpose of this bill is to provide additional protections to injured individuals receiving workers compensation. For example, section 3 of the bill states that an individual is entitled to an independent medical examination for a workers compensation claim “that is open or when the closure of a claim is under dispute”. Additionally, Mills stated that section 3 of the bill would provide a second opinion to the injured employee in the form of an independent medical examination on a workers compensation case. Mills added that after speaking with insurers and the industry, he is willing to agree on an amendment in subsection 6 of section 3 of the bill. Since the insurer will have to pay for costs associated with an independent medical examination, Mills agreed with the insurers that they should have the right to see the results of the examination report. Furthermore, the bill would require insurers to provide at least three vocational rehabilitation counselors to the “injured employee or personal or legal representative of the injured employee.” This would give these individuals choices since they currently do not have
As a nurse it has happened to be an essential need to be conscious of the legal aspects associated with caring and serving people in the health industry today. Unfortunately, only fewer people want to get into the health care field fearing the legal aspects and the predictable law suits. The Tort Law is one of the legal aspects of the law that most nurses is more familiar with. This is the law that involved misconduct and negligence cases, which many nurses take the time to study in depth. This is one of the most universal and well-known laws, something that nurses and doctors must be familiar with, to maintain their care resourcefully.
On this film it is showcased through several different cases how the tort reform has impacted individuals’ constitutional and civil rights. It also showcases how large companies and political leaders have used their power for their own purposes as well as to push legislature to pass through the White House and become law by financing their campaigns and helping the candidates to win elections. One of those laws was the caps on punitive damages through tort reform.
Plainly said, Tort Reform is caps on damages. Tort reform is not just one single idea or law, but mostly it's a group of ideas and laws which are designed to change the way our civil justice system works. After careful examination of several sites and blogs, it is obvious that Tort Reform is extremely controversial. Several articles aimed at providing a neutral explanation of what individual tort reform measures are, and the effect they will have on the court system and on citizens, if we are not careful when we vote for these types of policy changes. (Admin,
Tort reform is a push by special interest to limit tort litigation in the U.S. The documentary Hot Coffee, walks us through 4 case studies on the methods used by the Tort reform lobby. Composed of businesses, manufacturers, hospitals, insurance companies and other businesses. Using their money to affect changes to the 7th Amendment statutes:
Art and Bill were leaving work one afternoon when they were approached by Charlie, who was
The National Center for State Courts reports that our perceptions of civil litigation are problematically distorted, even though “high-value tort and commercial contract disputes are the predominant focus of contemporary debates.” High-value tort cases make up
One approach to minimize large amounts of tort claims for medical malpractice is to put a cap on non-economical awards. Tort reform is the response; a tort is a civil lawsuit for damages over private wrongs other than breach of contract. According to Lau and Johnson (2014), a tort can be categorized into three categories: intentional tort, when tortfeasor acted with intent, negligence, if the tortfeasor did not act intentionally, but failed to act as a reasonable person, and lastly, strict liability, if the tortfeasor is engaged in certain activities, which caused injury or death due to it. The massive medical malpractice cases across the nation have made defending frivolous lawsuits is a national problem; ultimately, the general public
According to most news articles and journals interpreting the progression of the tort reform, noneconomic damages reforms are the most common throughout the states. As
The Federal Tort Claims Act is a limited waiver of the federal government’s sovereign immunity when its employees are negligent within the scope of their employment. Typically the government cannot be sued whenever they have committed a tort or any of their employees have committed a tort, making the government basically immune from being sued. The only time they can be sued is when the government says they can be sued. Luckily for victims of torts, the government created the Federal Tort Claim Act which allows the victims of torts to sue the government for negligence of their employees. There are certain limitations and criteria that must be followed.
Tort reform has intense arguments to both sides and creates a myriad of concerns. On one side of the tort reform movement, defendants such as corporations and medical professionals want limits on the damages awarded to the plaintiff. The benefit of tort reform for defendant is the financial savings. However, a cap placed on medical malpractice cases and other cases that are of negligence would standardize the monetary compensation regardless of the damage. In my opinion, Medical malpractice tort reform is a gray area, for each breach of the standard of care involves a different story and person, therefore the damages vary and should be evaluated fairly. In this essay, both sides of the argument are discussed, with a focus on medical malpractice tort reform.
Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis that basically places limits or caps on the type or amount of damages that can be awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Personally, I definitely agree that tort reform should be passed into law for every state because sometimes the damages that are awarded in lawsuits are too excessive. Moreover, tort reform still allows for the plaintiff to recover damages just not at an excessive and unreasonable amount of damages.
Rising health care costs have caused a national crisis, and all agree we must embrace reform. President Obama has initiated his national health care plan in the hopes of decreasing some of the inflated costs. When attempting to resolve this issue, one must always address the root of the problem. A large portion of these inflationary costs stem from malpractice lawsuits, and so begins the debate for tort reform: legislation which would cut the costs of health care by reducing the risk of civil litigation and exposure to fraudulent claims (“What”). However, the real factor at hand and the real cause of the industry’s high costs does not come solely from the cost incurred from these lawsuits, but from over-expenditures on the part of
To help prove the significance of what they were investigating, Grabell and Berkes found examples of workers affected by workers’ compensation laws and personally interviewed those workers and their families (Grabell). In all, they visited sixteen states and interviewed more than 200 injured workers, workers’ compensation lawyers, insurance industry professionals, employers, doctors, regulators, academics, and lawmakers (Grabell).