Law Commons^™

Defense Costs And Insurer Reserves In Medical Malpractice And Other Personal Injury Cases: Evidence From Texas, 1988-2004, Bernard Black, David A. Hyman, Charles Silver, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

We study defense costs for commercially insured personal injury tort claims in Texas over 1988–2004, and insurer reserves for those costs. We rely on detailed case-level data on defense legal fees and expenses, and Texas state bar data on lawyers’ hourly rates. We study medical malpractice (“med mal”) cases in detail, and other types of cases in less detail. Controlling for payouts, real defense costs in med mal cases rise by 4.6 percent per year, roughly doubling over this period. The rate of increase is similar for legal fees and for other expenses. Real hourly rates for personal injury defense …

Due Process And Punitive Damages: An Economic Approach, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This paper sets out a public choice (rent-seeking) theory of the Due Process Clause, which implies that the function of the clause is to prevent takings through the legislative or common law process. This view of the clause's function supports a preference for expanding rather than contracting the set of entitlements protected by the clause. The Supreme Court's application of due process reasoning in the punitive damages case law is in some respects consistent and in other respects inconsistent with this theory. For the most part, the Court has failed to develop a set of doctrines that would enable lower …

Peterson V. Balach, Obvious Dangers, And The Duty Of Possessors Of Land In Minnesota, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this article is to analyze Minnesota landowners law, with particular emphasis on the impact of Peterson v. Balach. Following a short history of Minnesota law governing possessors’ duties, including a discussion of pre-Peterson v. Balach and Adee v. Evanson cases, the article considers the question of why the courts, post-Peterson v. Balach/Adee v. Evanson, regularly return to pre-Peterson forms to resolve possessor liability issues, particularly in cases involving obvious dangers, and whether the phenomenon is a result of a wrong turn or is a reflection of a conscious policy choice intended to effectively repudiate the progressive position …

Scuba Diving Buddies: Rights, Obligations, And Liabilities, Phyllis G. Coleman

Faculty Scholarship

A common misconception is that scuba diving is dangerous; the reality is that divers are more likely to be hurt in their cars driving to the dive site than in an underwater accident. Arguably one reason the sport is so safe is the widespread, and often mandatory, use of the buddy system.

A buddy expects his partner to perform a variety of tasks, which include assisting during an emergency. However, a glaring omission in the legal literature is the important issue of what happens when a diver's failure to act results in his buddy's death or serious injuries. This article …

A Watershed Moment: Reversals Of Tort Theory In The Nineteenth Century, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers a new assessment of the stages in the development of fault and strict liability and their justifications in American history. Building from the evidence that a wide majority of state courts adopted Fletcher v. Rylands and strict liability for unnatural or hazardous activities in the late nineteenth century, a watershed moment turns to the surprising reversals in tort ideology in the wake of flooding disasters.

An established view of American tort law is that the fault rule supposedly prevailed over strict liability in the nineteenth century, with some arguing that it was based on instrumental arguments to …