Unintended consequences of tort reform

From: PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: Legislatures cap damages: Minorities, union workers hardest hit

Observers of the tort reform have noted that there may be indirect consequences of capping the amount plaintiffs can receive in injury cases:

(from NAACP legal brief )

This discrimination stems from non-economic damage caps’ favoritism for higher

wage earners, who are traditionally white men. Lucinda M. Finley, The Hidden Victims

of Tort Reform: Women Children, and the Elderly, 53 EMORY L.J. 1263, 1280 (2004).

See also Joanne Doroshow & Amy Widman, Racial Implications of Tort Reform, 25

WASH U. J. L. & POL’Y 161, 169–70 n.37–38 (2007) (explaining that ethnic and racial

minorities are disproportionately unemployed or employed in low-paying jobs).

Minorities and other groups, such as women and the poor, receive lower economic

damages. Finley, supra, at 1280. Even the equation many courts use to calculate future

wages when they are determining economic damages reinforces the disparity because it

presumes minorities and women will continue to earn less. Id. at 1280–81.

The brief further argues:

So the“savings” generated by caps come from “wiping out” the non-economic damage awards

of injured plaintiffs with few economic damages. David A. Hyman, Not Worth the Pain

and Suffering, FORBES, Sept. 15, 2008, available at http://www.forbes.com/forbes/