tort reform, medical malpractice attorney at law

A major report released by the national consumer group Center for Justice & Democracy finds that laws that restrict injured consumer's rights to go to court –"tort reform" – have failed to cut insurance costs or rates around the country.

The report, "Premium Deceit – the Failure of "Tort Reform" to Cut Insurance Prices", is the most extensive review of insurance rate activity in the wake of the 'liability insurance crisis' of the mid-1980s ever undertaken. States with little or no tort law restrictions have experienced approximately the same changes in insurance rates as those states that have enacted severe restrictions on victims' rights."

According to co-author Doroshow, "For years, insurance companies and their corporate allies have argued that our civil justice system is responsible for unaffordable liability insurance. This study has, for the first time, definitively exposed the campaign to restrict consumers' rights for what it is -- an insidious public relations scam that has had terrible consequences for many innocent people, while doing nothing to improve the affordability or availability of liability insurance for businesses or professions".

Enactment of tort law limits around the country over the last 14 years has not succeeded in reducing insurance prices for insurance consumers.

The report concludes, "Laws that restrict the rights of injured consumers to go to court do not produce lower insurance costs or rates, and insurance companies that claim they do are severely misleading this country's lawmakers."

From the mid-1980s until today, the nation's largest businesses have been advancing a legislative agenda to limit their liability for causing injuries. One of the principal arguments on which they rely is that laws that make it more difficult for injured people to go to court (i.e., "tort reform") will reduce insurance rates. This report analyzes these claims, and concludes they are invalid.

Despite what "tort reform" proponents promised lawmakers, tort law limits enacted since the liability insurance crisis of the mid-1980s have not lowered insurance rates in the ensuing years. States with little or no tort law restrictions have experienced the same level of insurance rates as those states that enacted severe restrictions on victims' rights.

The "liability insurance crisis" of the mid-1980s was ultimately found to be caused not by legal system excesses but by the economic cycle of the insurance industry.

Just as the liability insurance crisis was found to be driven by the insurance underwriting cycle and not a tort law cost explosion as many insurance companies and others had claimed, the "tort reform" remedy pushed by these advocates failed. As the findings of this report confirm, legal system restrictions are based upon a false predicate. "Tort reforms" do not produce lower insurance costs or rates.

Tort Reform and Medical Malpractice