According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, “The tort system is truly broken and in bad need of repair.” Tort cases are becoming an extremely common fight in the nation’s legal system. Since 1986, 38 of the 50 United States have adopted some sort of tort reform. However, with the many flaws of the tort system today, the suffering American economy will continue to fall behind if the American public does not insist on fighting for justice in the legal system. The governing bodies of these states must continue to seek reform and propose strategies to fix the corruption in the tort system. The legal system set up by the founding fathers will experience corruption in the negligence of these governing bodies. Tort law is a branch of civil law that establishes rights to a person when a damaging act is done to either a person or one’s property. Crimes involving tort occur when negligence or intentional civil wrong is done and it does not arise out of a contract or statute. A tort is an act that injures a person mentally, physically, emotionally, or any other way. Acts of tort also include damage to ones property or reputation. Crimes of tort typically seek compensation which usually results in a dollar amount to cover the cost of the damage. Through the tort system, victims seek reimbursement for a wrongdoing done against them, holding the person legally responsible and hoping to prevent the wrong from again occurring. However, because compensation is involved in cases of tort, the system has begun to become more corrupt and the legal system is beginning to experience abuse. Victims are mistreating the legal system and seeking unreasonable reimbursements to cover their injuries. The people United ...
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Damages are a fundamental principle in the American legal system. However, a number of recent cases in the United States have sparked a debate on the issue, the most famous one being the “hot coffee lawsuit”1. In 1994, Stella Liebeck bought coffee at a McDonald’s restaurant, spilt it, and was severely burnt. She sued the McDonald’s company, received $160,000 in compensatory damages, and $2.9 million in punitive damages. A judge then reduced the punitive damages to $480,000. The final out-of-court settlement was of approximately $500,000. For many, this case is frivolous (meaning that the plaintiff’s prospects of being successful were low or inexistent), but it really highlights the question of excessive punitive damages compared to the damage suffered and its causes.
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Medical malpractice has become a controversial social issue. From a doctor’s standpoint, decisions and preventative actions can alter the medical malpractice lawsuits filed against them. In order to protect their career and professional life medical malpractice insurance is available. Medical professional liability insurance, sometimes known as medical malpractice insurance, is one type of professional liability insurance. “Professional liability refers to liability that arises from a failure to use due care and the standard of care expected from a person in a particular profession, in this case a doctor, dentist, nurse, hospital or other health-related organization” (Brandenburg, 2014).
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The McIntyre vs. Balentine is one of the landmark cases in the United States because of its contribution to the adoption of a system of modified comparative fault in Tennessee. Based on this system, a plaintiff may receive compensation for damages where his/her fault is less than the defendant’s fault. Notably, the recovery of damages by the plaintiff is lessened to reflect his/her extent of fault. In situations involving several tortfeasors, a plaintiff’s recovery of damages is valid so long as his/her fault is less than the total fault of all tortfeasors (“Comparative Fault & The Empty Chair”, n.d.). The lawsuit was determined on the basis of contributory negligence doctrine and comparative negligence. The application of these doctrines as fueled by the need to determine the essential difference in the fault or legal duty between a party or non-party and negligent tortfeasor.
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Health Insurance is one of the nations top problems, the cost is rising for premiums, and many businesses just cannot afford it. As Americans many of us have the luxury of health insurance, but far too many of us have to go without it. This is something that always seems to brought up at congressional debates, but little is done about it. “In 2013 there were 41 million people reported with out health insurance coverage, this is too many considering those people probably were sick at some point through out the year, and they couldn’t afford treatment.” We need to find someway to make sure that every citizen of the United States is able to have affordable healthcare for themselves, and their families.
In the articles written by Richard L. Abel and Peter W. Huber both have valid arguments with extremely different viewpoints on the litigation process. Peter W. Huber feels there is too much litigation in our country to where it cripples our society to become more successful. Huber feels there is less encouragement for citizens to take matters in their own hands and take responsibility for their actions. With a rather different perspective Richard L. Abel feels we have too little litigation rather than too much, he believes that manufacturers' products and services cause this and more litigation is actually needed. Abel feels that all injuries that happen to individuals should never go uncompensated. Whether you agree with Abel's theory or Huber's theory on the litigation process today, each makes perfect sense and also has statistics and scenarios to support their theory.
Given the difficulties in the present tort system, we often become victims of the failures of medicine as opposed to beneficiaries of its many successes. Physicians have lost in that they have changed, limited, or closed their practices after having spent the most vigorous years of their lives training for such work. Patients have lost in that the physicians of their choice, with whom they have developed trusting relationships, are no longer available to care for them. It is certain that the system requires sensible reform (p.525).
Tort is a word developed to describe in general the different types of claims that are normally imposing economic and financial losses that are because of some kind of misbehavior, apart from breach of contract. The term is used to refer to this type of claims, false presentations, fraud, breach of contract, encouragement, unfair competition, trade name and trademark infringement and interference with business relationships (Emanuel, S.
This includes how litigious Americans are, the recent explosion of tort litigation, frivolous lawsuits, litigation lottery, and jumbo verdicts, This argument assumes that Americans are suing one another every chance they get. If this were true, it would be a significant concern. There is little empirical support for the alleged explosion of tort litigation. For example, from the 1980s to the early 2000s, tort cases filed in Texas, generally considered an active tort reform state (September 2003 Texas started their major reform capping general damages to $250,000), district courts decreased from 9.4% of civil filings to 8.6%. Also in Texas, between 1995 and 2000, "the filing rate for all tort cases decreased by 31.7% (Daniels & Martin, 2015). Daniels and Martin also reference an interesting study performed by Professor Bert Kritzer on the screening performed by plaintiffs' attorneys. Kritzer's research found that nearly 70% of potential personal injury claims, and over 80% of potential malpractice claims, were declined representation because of either a lack of evidence of liability or small damages. Thus, it is hard to believe that frivolous lawsuits are actually a serious problem if attorneys are screening the majority of the potential claims that are brought to them. Explosion of tort litigation is an example of how popular belief often overcomes statistical
ObamaCare Summary: A Summary of Obama's Health Care Reform. n.d. Web. 18 03 2014. .