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Full-Text Articles in Law
Medical Malpractice Liability Crisis Or Patient Compensation Crisis?, Kathryn Zeiler
Medical Malpractice Liability Crisis Or Patient Compensation Crisis?, Kathryn Zeiler
Faculty Scholarship
Tort reform has been a hot topic among those interested in assessing whether and how well the tort system aids injured plaintiffs in achieving civil justice. The debate has been especially heated when it comes to medical malpractice liability. Until recently, rhetoric about the liability system and its relationship to insurance markets and physician supply dominated tort reform debates. While claims made by both proponents and opponents can seem intuitive, they are often unsubstantiated. In recent years, however, academics and others have acquired or created datasets to perform analyses to enhance our understanding of the relationship between the tort system …
Federalization Snowballs: The Need For National Action In Medical Malpractice Reform, Abigail Moncrieff
Federalization Snowballs: The Need For National Action In Medical Malpractice Reform, Abigail Moncrieff
Faculty Scholarship
Because tort law generally and healthcare regulation specifically are traditional state functions and because medical, legal, and insurance practices are highly localized, legal scholars have long believed that medical malpractice falls within the states' exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty. Indeed, this view is so widely held that modern legal scholarship takes it for granted. Articles on general federalism issues use medical malpractice as an easy example of a policy in which federal intervention lacks functional justification, and articles that focus on federalization of other tort reforms use medical malpractice as an easy foil, pointing out that the uniformity interest that justifies …
Reflections On Remedies And Philip Morris V. Williams, Keith N. Hylton
Reflections On Remedies And Philip Morris V. Williams, Keith N. Hylton
Faculty Scholarship
This essay is a series of reflections on the implications of Philip Morris for the tort reform movement, a movement for which I share considerable sympathy. First, I offer an ideal approach to punitive damages-based on my amicus brief in Philip Morris-and apply that approach to the case. I make an effort to find a middle ground between the positions of the plaintiff and defendant because, in any case that reaches the Supreme Court, one will find persuasive arguments to be made on both sides. That middle ground involves largely returning to the Supreme Court's pre-Gore treatment of punitive …