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Full-Text Articles in Torts
Perception And Decision At The Threshold Of Tort Law: Explaining The Infrequency Of Claims, David M. Engel
Perception And Decision At The Threshold Of Tort Law: Explaining The Infrequency Of Claims, David M. Engel
Journal Articles
Although numerous studies have confirmed that tort victims rarely litigate and that most simply "lump" their losses, we lack an understanding of why this should be so. Why do the vast majority of injured persons choose inaction over action? Explanations relying on rational actor theories on the one hand or cultural determinism on the other have been sharply challenged by recent studies of mind, culture, and cognition, particularly with respect to individual responses to physical trauma and disablement. This article, drawing on a broad interdisciplinary literature dealing with injury victims, proposes a new model of perception and decision by persons …
Lumping As Default In Tort Cases: The Cultural Interpretation Of Injury And Causation, David M. Engel
Lumping As Default In Tort Cases: The Cultural Interpretation Of Injury And Causation, David M. Engel
Journal Articles
Empirical studies of the tort law system suggest that "lumping, " or decisions by victims to do without adequate remedies, should be regarded as the predominant response to injury in American society and elsewhere. Yet research on lumping remains conceptually impoverished and gives insufficient attention to the culturalftameworks victims use to interpret their experiences and determine their responses. This Article presents the stories of injury victims in Thailand and compares their common-sense understandings of torts and tort law to those of injured Americans. It argues that analyses of lumping in America as well as Asia should take into account the …
The Hidden Victims Of Tort Reform: Women, Children, And The Elderly, Lucinda M. Finley
The Hidden Victims Of Tort Reform: Women, Children, And The Elderly, Lucinda M. Finley
Journal Articles
I have conducted empirical research from several states on how juries in medical malpractice and other tort suits allocate their damage awards between economic loss damages and noneconomic loss damages. I then compared cases in which men are the victims and cases in which women are the victims. This research demonstrates that while overall men tend to recover greater total damages, juries consistently award women more in noneconomic loss damages than men, and that the noneconomic portion of women's total damage awards is significantly greater than the percentage of men's tort recoveries attributable to noneconomic damages. Consequently, any cap on …
The Legal Community And The Transformation Of Disputes: The Settlement Of Injunction Actions, James B. Atleson
The Legal Community And The Transformation Of Disputes: The Settlement Of Injunction Actions, James B. Atleson
Journal Articles
Lawyers in cases involving injunctions against picketing represent clients in situations of great immediacy. A significant number of injunction actions are settled with reductions in picketing despite a seemingly restrictive statute and a highly organized workforce. This study of legal culture examines the role of lawyers in striving to create predictability, especially in regard to judges and the police, and in transforming conflicts of value into disputes over interests that can be resolved without resort to formal adjudication.
The Oven Bird's Song: Insiders, Outsiders, And Personal Injuries In An American Community, David M. Engel
The Oven Bird's Song: Insiders, Outsiders, And Personal Injuries In An American Community, David M. Engel
Journal Articles
In "Sander County" Illinois, concerns about litigiousness in the local population tended to focus on personal injury suits, although such cases were very rarely brought. This article explores the roots of these concerns in the ideology of the rural community and in the reactions of many residents to social, cultural, and economic changes that created a pervasive sense of social disintegration and loss. Personal injury claims are contrasted with contract actions, which were far more numerous yet were generally viewed with approval and did not give rise to perceptions of litigiousness or greed. The distinction is explained in terms of …