The Pros And Cons Of Tort Reform

Tort reform is very controversial issue. From the plaintiff’s perspective, tort reforms seems to take liability away from places such as insurance companies and hospitals which could at times leave the plaintiff without defense. From the defendant’s perspective, tort reform provides a defense from extremely large punitive damage awards. There seems to be no median between the two. Neither side will be satisfied. With the help of affiliations such as the American Tort Reform Association and Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, many businesses and corporations are working to change the current tort system to stop these high cash awards.

Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis that basically places limits or caps on the type or amount of damages that can be awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Personally, I definitely agree that tort reform should be passed into law for every state because sometimes the damages that are awarded in lawsuits are too excessive. Moreover, tort reform still allows for the plaintiff to recover damages just not at an excessive and unreasonable amount of damages.

According to Attorney.com, Ohio malpractice law defines medical malpractice as when a medical professional, such as a doctor or a nurse, or a medical institution, such as a hospital, injures a patient during the course of a treatment. Furthermore, for this injury to be able to be considered medical malpractice, the doctor's actions must represent a breach, or violation, of the standard of care. A standard of care is defined as the generally accepted practices and procedures that all medical professionals in the area would administer for a patient suffering from a particular ailment. This standard of care varies depending on a number of factors, including the patient's general health as well as his or her age.

In the article “Despite Counsel, Victim Is Hindered by tort laws.” The author Becca Aaronson, explains that sometimes tort laws may not feel fair. Connie Spears is just an ordinary woman who went to the Emergency because she felt some pain in her legs which she told the hospital she is known to have blood clots but, after being checked by the doctors they sent her home with a minor diagnoses. Just a short few days later she ended up in a different hospital with serious illness that caused her to loose both of her legs. She then filed a medical malpractice law suit but, she had to produce adequate expert reports within 120 days of filing their cases or she will be ordered to pay the defendants court fees. Connie Spears argues that

The purpose of tort law is to provide compensation to victims when they have experienced harm or loss. Making the person “whole” and

Hospitals can avoid common law tort systems by adapting a Guidelines Based Systems. These systems will give the Clinic or Hospital click all practice guideline statements to follow. The statements will provide appropriate treatments for illnesses, symptoms and even different types of patients (Kessler, 2011). Such guidelines will help the physician fine the best clinical approach for the patient, thus verging away from malpractice or negligent issues (Kessler, 2011).

Tort reform is an extremely debatable topic in the political & legal fields. By definition, tort reform refers to, “The proposed changes made in the civil justice system that directly reduces tort litigation or damages.” Generally, when someone mentions tort reform to an everyday normal person who is not familiar with legalese, they don’t have any idea of what the term “tort reform” is. Throughout this, one will understand through the three interviews conducted that two out of three people don’t necessarily understand the full concept of tort reform or have absolutely no idea what it is. One of the most notorious cases that led to the ongoing debate of tort reform is Liebeck v. Mcdonald’s Restaurant. When the case is brought up, one will say, “Isn’t that the lady that burned herself with coffee and then tried to sue for millions of dollars?” People believe they know the details of the case, however one will be able to see, this particular case is often misconstrued. In my personal opinion, after learning and studying the facts of this case, I don’t understand how a human being could be for tort reform after actually learning about the trials and tribulations that certain people in these kinds of cases, especially Stella Liebeck, have to go through.

Medical malpractice insurance is a type of professional liability insurance purchased by health care professionals (and sometimes by other types of professionals, such as lawyers). This insurance coverage protects health care providers against patients who sue them under the claim that they were harmed by the physician's negligent or intentionally harmful treatment decisions. Premiums are usually based on the physician's specialty and geographic location but not on claims experience. This means that even if a physician has never been sued, he or she can end up paying extremely high premiums. The premiums can become high because of factors such as amount of coverage needed, claims severity, claims frequency, location of practice and laws in

Tort reform is a term propagated by companies in the tobacco and asbestos industries vulnerable to legal actions seeking damages for the impacts to their products. Advocates use the terminology to limit the ability and potential damages available to individuals who take legal actions against companies. In 2002, the consumer advocacy organization Center for Justice and Democracy investigated the U.S. "tort reform" and saw that the "rally" was actually a massive national PR effort initiated by the tobacco industry to reduce or eliminate exposure to liability law suits. Concerned by the increasing regularity in which some state attorneys general are hiring personal injury lawyers to pursue lawsuits on behalf of their practicing states, the

People who support the tort law reform based their argument on the ground that victim’s parties often misuse the power given to them by the state to sue someone under fallacious grounds and successfully get away with it. According to them

Full tort and limited tort are a type of automobile insurance policies that are available in the state of Pennsylvania. The idea behind the law was that if insurance companies would create policies which cover the medical bills of the drivers involved in the car accident - regardless of who was at fault, it would reduce the number of “pain and suffering” lawsuits. Moreover, by reducing the number of lawsuits, insurance companies would have reduced payouts, therefore insurance premiums could be reduced.

The law of torts can be traced back to English Common Law and has become and integral part of Anglo-American Law for hundreds of years .These laws have been modified many times since the late 1800's by state legislatures and these changes have given plaintiffs more chance of success when bringing forth their claims. Original tort law included coverage for injuries suffered while in the workplace but this since has been removed entirely from tort law and replaced with the state administered workers compensation systems. In order for a plaintiff to utilize the law of torts certain elements need to be present so that a reasonable measure of success can be ensured in the outcome.

“Victims of crime are increasingly resorting to civil litigation, in addition to victim compensation and restitution, as a means of recovering from the ill effects of crime. Moreover, victims’ rights advocates are advocating civil remedies as one way for victims to reassert control” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2014). “ These suits are brought because the courts possess powers that private parties do not; courts can, for example, order a person to pay a business money owed under a contract or award monetary damages suffered for an injury received in an automobile accident” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2014).

Tort law is a very prevalent aspect of conducting business and daily life in the twenty first century. According to the textbook, The Legal Environment of Business, tort law provides “remedies for the invasion of various protected interests.” (Cross & Miller, 2012) In this essay about tort law, I will talk about a tort case that has personally impacted me. To do so, I will provide a background of the event, apply facts of the case to applicable law, summarize lessons of the week as they relate to this case and provide a plausible argument for the parties involved.

The way to recognise duties of care is to find if there is a law regarding relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant (Pentony, 2013). For example, the teacher is under a general duty of care to provide students a safe environment to study, or the manufactures need to provide a higher quality good to customers.