Understand how tort reform impacts your rights
Tort reform is a term often heard in the news and promoted as a pro-business movement. Proponents of tort reform claim that tort cases are so numerous that they clog up the justice system and that verdicts are far too high. In reality, tort cases make up a small percentage of cases in the civil justice system while the majority stem from business disputes and collections. Tort reform is a wolf in sheep’s clothing which does little more than to further hurt the injured and boost profits of insurance companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
What is a tort?
A tort is an injury or wrongful act. A tortfeasor is the one who caused the injury. Tort law is the body of law covering personal injury cases which makes it possible for people injured by others to receive compensation. All that the law allows is to make an injured person whole. That is to put the injured person back in the position they were in immediately before the injury by replacing what was taken from them. The law does not allow for a prize, jackpot, or windfall, but to simply make the injured whole again. The injury cannot be undone so the law allows money to serve as a substitute. This is a far cry from what proponents of tort reform claim the civil justice system allows.
What is tort reform?
Forbes, a well-known pro-business publication defines tort reform as any attempt to “make it more difficult for injured victims to file lawsuits against those who hurt them. Limit the amount of compensation victims can recover when they do file a lawsuit.” When a person causes an injury, they are responsible for the damages. Tort reform shifts that burden to the one who was injured. Tort reform typically happens slowly over time, like the erosion of a foundation. Left alone, the foundation will fail and the structure will crumble. This is the ultimate goal of tort reformers.
How do they do it?
There are several angles from which tort reformers attack the civil justice system. Here are just a couple:
- Caps on damages set limitations on how much someone can recover, without consideration of the extent of their injuries. In Texas, a cap was placed on how much a claimant could recover in a medical malpractice case, even if the injury was severe and they suffered for years. In Georgia, tort reformers passed a law capping punitive damages at $250,000 with narrow exceptions. Punitive damages are awarded to deter particularly egregious behavior of the tortfeasor. When the tortfeasor acts with a conscious indifference to the consequences, punitive damages are warranted to punish and deter the tortfeasor from doing it again. With a cap on punitive damages, one need only consider whether the benefit of the bad behavior outweighs the punishment. Large companies already conduct the cost benefit analysis of dangerous behavior. With this cap on damages, profits from the bad behavior only have to exceed $250,000 to make it worthwhile to the company. This makes Georgia much more dangerous for those who visit and live here.
- As of this writing, a bill eliminating direct actions is about to go into effect in Georgia. This law will eliminate the ability of an injured person to sue the insurance company of a common carrier, like a trucking company. Insurers for trucking companies are frequently heavily involved in the policies, procedures, and best practices of the insured companies, sometimes acting like another department or extension of the trucking company. The elimination of direct actions makes it so the actions of the insurance company can not be called into question. This will allow common carriers to point the finger at their insurer, and the insurer cannot be touched.
Tort reformers want to make it as difficult as possible for injured people to recover, and when they do recover, they want the amount to not be worth the effort. Ultimately, they want attorneys to leave the practice of personal injury law so injured people will not have representation. Left alone to navigate the wilderness of their personal injury claim, claimants will be at the mercy of the wolves.
