Reforming Products Liability

W. Kip Viscusi

    Preface

    1. Diagnosing the Liability Crisis

    Perspectives on Liability Reform

    Recent Trends in Products Liability

    Proposals for Reform

    2. The Dimensions of the Liability Crisis

    Accident Rates Decline, But Litigation Soars

    The Surge in Asbestos Litigation

    Insurance Industry Trends

    Roots of the Insurance Crisis, 1980-1984

    Other Economic Effects of Products Liability

    The Design Defect Doctrine and Hazard Warnings

    3. The Litigation Process

    The Overall Structure of Products Liability Litigation

    Court Verdicts

    Claims Settled Out of Court

    Cases That Are Dropped

    Using Economic Models to Assess Reform Proposals

    4. The Design Defect Test

    A Case Study of Risk-Utility Tradeoffs

    Risk-Utility Analysis

    The Producer as Insurer

    Alternative Risk-Utility Measures

    On the Threshold of Marketability

    Who Decides?

    Proposals for Restructuring the Product Defect Test

    5. The Explosive Mathematics of Damages

    The Insurance Value and the Deterrence Value of Damages

    Inflation and the Increase in Verdict Awards

    Noneconomic Damages

    Has Voodoo Economics Come to the Courts?

    Applying the Value of Life: The Ford Pinto Case

    Proposals for Setting Damages

    6. Regulation of Product Safety

    The Adequacy of Incentives

    Regulatory Violations and Products Liability Litigation

    Restructuring the Institutional Interactions

    7. Hazard Warnings

    The Objectives of Hazard Warnings

    Assessing the Quality of Warnings

    Warnings and the Risk-Utility Test

    Regulatory Compliance

    Toward a National Warnings Policy

    8. Environmental and Mass Toxic Torts

    The Market Paradigm and Why It Fails

    Products Liability--an Inadequate Remedy

    Agent Orange and the Economic Stakes of Mass Toxic Torts

    Compensation Funds

    Strategies for Mass Toxic Torts

    9. Workers' Compensation

    Lessons from the Workers' Compensation Experience

    Job-Related Products Liability Claims and Workers' Compensation

    10. Will Products Liability Reform Matter?

    Insurance Availability

    Products Liability Definitions

    State-of-the-Art Defenses

    Statutes of Limitation

    Collateral Source Rules and Damage Rules

    Effects on Premiums

    Conclusion

    11. A Strategy for Principled Products Liability Reform

    Appendix A: Products Liability Costs in Different Industries

    Appendix B: The Litigation of Job-Related Claims

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

  • Cover: Reforming Products Liability

W. Kip Viscusi is George G. Allen Professor of Economics at Duke University and Associate Reporter on the American Law Institute tort liability reform project