Tort reform

In 1983, Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. voluntarily removed Bendectin from the market because of the many product liability suits pending. However, subsequent in-depth analysis of epidemiological and scientific data indicated that the therapeutic use of Bendectin had no measurable teratogenic effects. Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, a number of jury decisions were rendered against the company (providing an argument for tort reform). 

Lifton DE, Bufano MM. 2004. A call for continued state law tort reform . Pharm. Med. Device Law Bull. 4(3). 

Although claimants may still choose to pursue compensation, this statute essentially constitutes Federal tort reform for eligible childhood vaccine-related injuries. By establishing a no-fault compensation scheme as the first form of redress for injuries and limiting liability for manufacturers who have met FDA requirements, Congress has, in essence, nullified case law that had previously allowed liability findings based on theories of... 

Product liability has become one of the fastest-growing, and perhaps the most economically significant, applications of tort law. Pharmaceutical companies have been defendants in some of the most widely publicized and costly product liability lawsuits in the USA and Europe, prompting many companies to lobby vigorously for tort reform and prepare years in advance for the possibility of litigation (Nace et al, 1997). The liability burden of pharmaceutical companies has been described as extremely disproportionate to their sales when compared with other manufacturing industries (The Progress and Freedom Foundation 1996,... 

The current legal system has been successful in delivering large monetary settlements to individual victims of medical accident, but has slowed progress toward a culmre of patient safety. The criminalization of medical mistakes, and the resulting penalties, create fear-based responses on the part of professionals. Safety would be advanced by tort reform that created better conditions for disclosure and accountability. 

The developed countries have adopted some types of products liability laws and directives. Most occurred after tort reform in the United States. Some countries set liability limits... 

After all, they need us, right Never mind politicians in the U.S. accuse safety of stealing jobs and in the U.K. of going too far that s just politicking. And forget that tort reform and the cry to end frivolous lawsuits have chipped away at the rights of injured parties to seek justice what has that to do with us ... 

Similar stories were carried in newspapers and publications throughout the world and the product became a focus for the need for tort reform. 

The tort reform story is just beginning. In the early 1970 s there was very little support for the idea that energetic ignorance might do more to harm our planet than to help it. There was no lack of energy and new wisdom expended on our planet. After four and one-half billion years we are on our way to protect our planet as it has never been protected before. 

The proposed rule was quietly dropped in 1997. Railroad lawyers suspect that it would only be resurrected when the mood of the country again turns toward tort reform and limitations on corporate liability. Of course, the Easterwood decision still stands, and courts can interpret the decision as a de facto case for preemption. 

Hard-pressed by dwindling budgets, the mainstream media was on the lookout for easily digested capsules of information that did not require much independent verification. The tort reformers facile portrayals of the civil justice system were specifically crafted to meet this need. ... 

Once implanted in the public mind, however, the themes proved quite impervious to correction by empirical data and scholarly analysis. The studies debunking the myths were published in academic books and journals. Unlike the think tank fellows who were rewarded for connecting with the media, academic scholars lacked the time and resources necessary to rebut the tort reform themes in forums that attracted the attention of the general public. Tbeir concern for the academic integrity of their studies precluded resort to anecdote-laden polemics of the sort that poured out of the think tanks. Consequently, they failed to replicate the tort reformers moralistic appeals to shared public values. ... 

The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), an umbrella group heavily funded by the tobacco industry, coordinated the business community s lobbying efforts at the federal level and provided resources to more than forty affiliated state organizations. A separate entity, called the Product Liability Coordinating Committee (PLCC), purported to represent more than 700,000 companies and small business organizations, but its primary supporters were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the National Association... 

Having failed to prevent the wave of tort reform legislation, plaintiffs attorneys challenged the statutes in court. By the mid-1990s, several state Supreme Courts had declared many of the most aggressive measures to be unconstitutional. Unwilling to accept the judgment of the courts, the business com-... 

With George W. Bush in the White House and the Republican Party controlling both houses of Congress in 2001, the business community believed that the time was ripe for another attempt to shape state common law through federal legislation. The Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), which the Chamber of Commerce created in 1998, poured more than 120 million over a seven-year period into the business community s tort reform efforts. At the same time, the business community s allies in academia and think tanks repeated the by-now familiar tort reform mantras, generated a new round of tort myths, and dressed up available data to lend the appearance of authenticity to the third assault on the civil justice system... 

The Third Assault in the States. The National Association of Manufacturers entered the fray at the state level for the first time in the early 2000s, joining other tort reform organizations in spending a combined 100 million on tort-related ballot initiatives during the 2003-2004 election cycle. The Chamber... 

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