Comments on: Oh Mama, Did I Hear Obama Right?

By: The Legal Landscape for Plaintiffs in an Obama Administration

The Legal Landscape for Plaintiffs in an Obama Administration — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:26:01 +0000

[...] elected, how would it affect plaintiffs in this country? As I noted in an earlier posting, “Oh Mama, Did I Hear Obama Right,” Obama has voted in favor of tort reform, a movement that generally aims to restrict the [...]

By: Kia

Kia — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:53:49 +0000

Thanks for covering this. More people need to understand why tort “reform” actually deforms our civil justice system by making it less accessible to ordinary people, and more of an additional protection for corporations. Funny that Obama, in that same debate, also mentioned Lily Ledbetter’s case as an example of a miscarriage of justice. And that he mentioned the failure to properly regulate financial industry as a cause of the mortgage meltdown. He seems to “get” why we need proper checks against corporate abuse and he seems to sympathize with ordinary people’s need to have strong legal rights. So why support tort “reform”? Anyway, good entry!

By: Andrew Barovick

Andrew Barovick — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:43:45 +0000

Tort reform refers to a movement by politicians, insurance companies, hospitals and other entities, the purpose of which is to limit a plaintiff’s recovery of damages in civil lawsuits. Most efforts at tort reform are aimed at personal injury cases, which include medical malpractice cases. Examples of what the so called tort reformers would like to do include: limiting, or “capping” certain forms of damages plaintiffs seek at trial; and establishing a “no-fault” system of compensating personal injury plaintiffs so as to cut costs for insurance companies, and keep the proceedings out of the courts. Supporters of tort reform, such as the medical liability companies that insure physicians and hospitals, usually claim that the high plaintiff’s verdicts have resulted in financial instability for the medical liability insurers, and that such verdicts drive up the cost of healthcare to the consumer. In fact, the great majority of the financial problems being encountered by the insurance companies is a result of their own poor investments. Moreover, tort reform aims to prevent civil plaintiffs from seeking and obtaining justifiable compensation when such plaintiffs have been injured through the negligence of others.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:23:02 +0000

Just what is meant by “tort reform”? I have often heard the term, but I haven’t heard it explained.