...Medical Malpractice Tort Reform in the Healthcare Industry Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs (Medical Malpractice Reform, 2011). Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue, which has caused physicians to have increasing concerns about the large number of lawsuits and the negative connotations that tend to go along with them. Physicians have started pushing for legal reforms to decrease the large monetary awards for damages whereas tort attorneys have argued that the negligence suits are an effective way of compensating the victims fairly and forcing the medical professions to follow a proper standard of care (Pozgar, 2013). An article from the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that between 210,000 to 400,000 people die every year in the U.S. from hospital medical errors and 1 in 14 U.S. doctors face a malpractice lawsuit every year (Corapi, 2014). Physicians and healthcare providers argue that the millions of dollars that are awarded in damages increase the cost of healthcare by passing this cost onto the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums and...
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...“A tort is a civil wrong for which the remedy is an action for unliquidated damages and which is not exclusively the breach of a contract, or the breach of a trust, or the breach of other merely equitable obligation”- Salmond The words ‘tort’ has originated from the Medieval Latin word ‘tortum’ which literally means injustice. But to be more specific, torts law is a vast branch of law which deals with civil wrongs like negligence (of different sorts), battery, harassment and trespass among others. In common parlance, torts may be described as the wing under which all claims pertaining to civil rights are brought and monetary compensation is awarded to right the people who have been hurt or their property damaged. Entering a property without...
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...contract and towards tort in product liability cases desirable? Introduction The approach taken with product liability cases has shifted over time. The Sale of Goods Act (1893) was an act put in place to state the terms and conditions of the contracts for the buying and selling particular goods. This act was later reformed in 1979, which fundamentally followed the same rules; the buying and selling of good were regulated by contractual agreements between the buyer and the seller. However as time progressed the sale of goods and product liability is moving from contracts and more towards tort liability. Contracts are legal promises between the buyer and seller in which the buyer promises to pay for a product that the seller must promise adheres to the standard expected from the product. A breach of contract includes that the buyer does not pay the right amount, or the more likely breach that the product has a design or manufacture defect that causes injury to the buyer. Tort liability instead simply makes the manufacturer responsible for any ‘injuries’ that the product causes the consumer. The idea behind this was because the seller is simply the agent of the manufacturer who has no part in the production process of the good sold. In this essay we will explain why product liability is starting to shift from contracts to tort. We will also discuss how tort law has developed over time focusing on the negligence rule and strict liability. Product liability law has become a very...
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...Tort Reform All humans on this earth, whether they live in a crowded city, a sparsely populated farming community, a developed or developing nation or a small tribe in the rainforests of the Amazon, have some way by which their civilization is led and regulated for the safety and comfort of its inhabitants. People living together in near proximity need some sort of social control to regulate conduct and relations be it by laws or morals or both. Ivan Nuy, an author who developed the Social Control Theory in 1958, proposed that there are four types of social control: Internal, Indirect, Control with Needs Satisfaction and Direct. Social Control Theory proposes that people's relationships, commitments, values, norms, and moral beliefs encourage them not to break the law. Thus, if moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into, (their) community, they will voluntarily limit their propensity to commit deviant acts. [ (Nuy, 1958) ] Law is needed for when comfort, morals and disapproval fail to prevent undesirable acts against people in a society. In our country’s system, we have two main types of classifications for justice, civil law and criminal law. Criminal law, under public law, covers laws and regulations that aim to protect all members of the society. Its emphasis is on punishment. Criminal offenders are prosecuted by government officials, who must provide “the burden of proof” to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable, doubt, usually a district...
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...ABSTRACT This research paper tries to expound the conundrums of Causation and Remoteness and the role played by them in tort law. They are two closely linked topics and are, more often than not, contingent upon each other. Through this paper, I have tried to discern the line of distinction between the two while explaining how and why they have become topics for contention among legal scholars. The focus of this paper has been on understanding the concepts and the importance they hold in the process of identifying a tortfeasor. The various tests which have been used in the past for identifying the cause and the ‘closeness’ of the cause have also been taken up. They have been discussed in detail using various case laws. The limitations of these tests have been explored as well. Under what condition does a cause, which may have been proximate, gets ignored has also been deliberated and discussed. Finally the paper is summed up with a general solution which can help law courts to decide on the matters in question without getting involved in the technicalities which currently persist. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION In order to understand the role of causation and remoteness in tortious liability it is imperative that we have a clear idea of what the term causation and remoteness imply in tort law. Very simply put - In a tort case, it is essential to discover whether there was some act or omission by the defendant which caused damage to the plaintiff...
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...Individual Assignment 2: Case Study Wardell Johnson AMBA 610 Professor M. Frank Introduction It takes constant work to ensure that any given system maintains order. The universe has a natural tendency to lead to entropy “a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder” (Merrim-webster.com). What guides Humanity to function in a society in concert with their fellow man? It’s the ability to set up laws to govern the actions of the members of said society. According to researchers Kubasek, Brennan, & Browne (2011) great minds have always debated the purpose of laws. For instance, Plato expressed that law is a form of social control, and Aristotle posited that law is a rule conduct, an ideal of reason (Kubasek et al., 2011). No matter what ones philosophical views are in regards to legal systems whether good or bad, laws help societies maintain a sense of order, setting and maintaining a sense of normalcy, in efforts to prevent societal entropy. In America the foundation of our legal system is based on the U.S. Constitution created the nation’s founding fathers to ensure every citizen equal access to justice. Liebeck v. McDonalds and Pearson v. Chung are two highly publicize cases of Tort law. “The primary goal of tort law is to compensate the innocent persons who are injured or whose property as result of another conduct (Kubasel et al 2011, p.309). Both of these cases involve people who wanted to turn to the American legal system to obtain justice...
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...Larrymore April 11, 2011 Group 5 Tort Reform As a society in today’s economy we are constantly being bombarded with news about law suits of one kind or another. It seems whenever we turn on the news there is a new high profile case of malpractice lawsuits and individuals are being sued left and right. We live in a lawsuit happy society that only continues to intensify as the economy continues to recover and citizens continue to seek employment. Often the main bulk of the law suits that make the news and that occur in today’s society are medical malpractice suits. One can find themselves hard pressed to watch T.V. without seeing a commercial or advertisement from an attorney offering to sue someone for something. In the realm of medical law suits the possibilities are seemingly endless. Patients are willing to sue anyone over anything including drug manufacturers, doctors, pharmacists, anesthesiologist and so forth. Malpractice insurance has reached an alarming high and physicians continue to fight for a cap to be placed on money awarded to plaintiffs. Physicians fear their jobs and lives may be in jeopardy if something is not done about these outrageous costs while patients worry that their medical care will suffer if such limits are awarded. In the 1990s there was a famous lawsuit that awarded a woman several million dollars in a law suit against McDonalds when she spilled hot coffee on her lap. Many of the details of the case were not given national attention...
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...| Good Samaritan Law Definition - A Good Samaritan in legal terms refers to someone who renders aid in an emergency to an injured person on a voluntary basis. What Is The Good Samaritan Law The "Good Samaritan Law" is the legal term that refers to someone who renders aid in an emergency to an injured person on a voluntary basis. The Good Samaritan laws offers legal protection to the person that gives reasonable assistance to another person who is injured, ill, or otherwise incapacitated. They made this law to encourage people to offer assistance without the fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death (Good Samaritan law, 2009). Most overdoses occur in the presence of other people and take several hours to cause death. However, research finds that in up to half of cases, no one calls for help. 911 calls are also often delayed as witnesses try ineffective methods of reviving people such as slapping them or dousing them with cold water. The most common reason given for not calling 911 or for delaying help seeking is fear of arrest and prosecution (Szalavitz, 2011). Who Does It Protected Most of the Good Samaritan laws are specifically made for the public and each law protects different individuals. A person will be protected under the Good Samaritan laws as long as he or she has good intentions to aid the victim to the best of his or her ability during a medical emergency. Under some Good Samaritan Laws, as long as medical...
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...Brian Ardizzoni Michael Neil English 1301, Composition 1 25 November 2012 Medical Malpractice For nearly forty years, tort reform constantly becomes an increasingly controversial issue affecting the medical community, the legal community and most of all, the victims of some very unfortunate accidents. Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis which place limits or caps on the type or amount of damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Those who advocate medical malpractice tort reform believe limitations should be set on the amount of damages a plaintiff or injured party can be rewarded by the court. These advocates usually include medical professionals and insurance companies. Their argument is that too many frivolous lawsuits lead to high malpractice insurance, the increasing cost of medical care and a burden on the taxpayers whose tax dollars absorb the extravagant litigation costs for these claims. They believe doctors will eventually be unable to practice medicine due to costly malpractice insurance premiums which may leave many Americans unable to obtain much-needed healthcare. In the past, as the rate of malpractice suits began to grow, so did the rate of malpractice insurance. This ended up having a dire impact on the medical profession. For one thing, many qualified doctors ended up leaving their practices and focusing more on preventative medicine. In other words, they...
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...Running head: RIORDAN RISK ASSESSMENT Riordan Risk Assessment LAW/531 Jack Tandy Riordan Risk Assessment Riordan Manufacturing currently employs 550 people and is a major player in the global plastics supply. The parent company, Riordan Industries is a Fortune 1000 enterprise and has over $1 billion in excess revenue. Riordan Manufacturing is headquartered out of San Jose, California, and supplies plastics to market verticals such as automotive, aircraft, and the government. Riordan Manufacturing prides themselves on the focus of using polymer materials for customer needs and building long-term relationships with each client. Since the start of the organization in 1991, growth has been a definition of Riordan Manufacturing. Growth is a necessity to any organization, but with growth provides risks that should be assessed. The following discussion, will analyze potential areas of risk within Riordan Manufacturing. The potential risks that will be analyzed include contract, tangible and intellectual property risk, employee risk, along with tort and regulatory risk. Each of the identified potential risk areas could inhibit the ability for Riordan Manufacturing to continue growth and potentially include major decrease in business success. In addition to the potential risk areas, compliance is another factor that needs to be ensured. Sarbanes-Oxley has specific requirements that will require Riordan Manufacturing to meet for continued...
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...Law and the Internet: Trespass to Chattels Abstract: This paper focuses on the use of Trespass to Chattels Law by owners as protection against the intentional use of their systems or the resources therein by unauthorized parties. The trespass to chattels law cannot be correctly applied to internet-related property rights because this law is being incorrectly used and does not adequately address the concerns of internet property owners and the rights they seek to protect. The 19th Century trespass to chattels tort is being utilized in cyberspace to protect systems against unauthorized use in the same way it is used to protect tangible/physical property. This law was first used by internet service providers (ISPs) to fight against unsolicited bulk email or spam, which was being sent in excess over their networks and systems. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the blanket application of this law to the internet has an adverse impact on the key function of the internet. Trespass to chattelslaw is now commonly used to fight against Robots (BOTs), which are automated programs that search the Internet. In many cases such as eBay v. Bidder’s edge, and Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.com, this law was used to fight the ability of users to search the internet and of providers to present data to users. This ability to search and present data is the primary purpose of the internet, and the overbroad application of trespass to chattels law, without any form of modification...
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...“A satisfactory justification for strict liability in tort law has yet to be found.” It is generally recognised that being responsible at law or in ordinary life are very different concepts: one is based on blame while the other focuses on fault. This imbalance is embedded in the tension between the two bases of liability recognised in the law of torts. On the one hand, as stressed in Hoffman v Jones, ‘the most equitable result that can ever be reached by a court is the equation of liability with fault’. Courts have energetically defended the view that fault is crucial in establishing responsibility. On the other hand, the same jurisdictions have operated a shift since Rylands v Fletcher from this doctrinal claim to adopt a strict liability standard in particular circumstances. Despite its appearance in statutes, many claim that a satisfactory justification for strict liability in tort law has yet to be found. This essay will nevertheless argue that this stand is unsupported and untrue: it is nonsensical to call for one unique explanation for this area of the law. The law on strict liability responds to a social demand which should not be reduced to one ‘metatheory’. The first two parts of this essay will be dedicated to the analysis the ‘social and economic benefits’ of strict liability mentioned in Chavez v Southern Pacific Transportation Co. We shall then argue that these justifications are best understood when interrelated with a broader moral justification. I] Social...
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...This article is published in a peer-reviewed section of the Utrecht Law Review The Use and Influence of Comparative Law in ‘Wrongful Life’ Cases Ivo Giesen* 1. Introduction** 1.1. Comparable stories of great grief In 1993, a South African boy named Brian Stewart was born severely handicapped. He suffers from ‘spina bifida’, a congenital defect to the lower spine, which negatively affects the nerve supply to the lower limbs, bladder and bowel. He suffers from a brain defect as well.1 In 1994, a Dutch girl named Kelly Molenaar was also born severely handicapped. By the time she was two-and-half-years old she was diagnosed as being retarded, autistic, not fully grown, not able to walk or talk, suffering from heart disease, bad hearing and poor eyesight and she was not able, at that time, to recognize her parents. She had been admitted to hospital on nine occasions due to continuous crying, believed to be caused by pain.2 Comparable stories about severely handicapped children can be found in several other countries as well. Both Brian and Kelly were not supposed to have been born in the sense that their mothers would have chosen for an abortion had they known in time about the birth defects their children would suffer. Brian’s mother would have undergone a termination of her pregnancy had the obstetrician and gynaecologist she consulted detected any abnormalities in the foetus and advised her thereof. Kelly’s mother had asked the obstetrician she consulted to carry out some...
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...Methodius" University in Skopje Faculty of Law "Iustinianus Primus"-Skopje Master’s Degree programme in Intellectual Property Law (LL.M.) INTERNET LAW The abuse of the cyberspace - jeopardizing the copyrights Prof. Goce Naumovski, PhD Temelkova Simona 42321 I.I The rise of technology and Internet as a platform for new problems So cyberspace is real. And so are the risks that come with it. - President Barack Obama1 Despite the many and obvious benefits of the modern electronic communications development,it has also brought with it the worrying threat of intentional attacks against information systems and network platforms/infrastructures. As cyberspace gets more and more complex and its components more and more sophisticated, especially due to the fast development and evolution of (broadband) Internet-based platforms, new and unforeseen vulnerabilities may emerge.” And further that “in the hands of persons acting in bad faith, malice, or grave negligence, information society technologies (ISTs) may become tools for activities that endanger or injure, the life, property, or dignity of individuals or even damage the public interest. Technology-enabled crimes are also known as high-tech crime, computer crimes or cyber crime. They include crimes committed directly against computers and computer systems, as well as the use of technology to commit or facilitate the commission of traditional crimes, bringing unique challenges to law enforcement. IT security in ICT, with...
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...Punitive damges also known as exemplary damages are commonly awarded in product liability or civil suit cases were the defendant is ordered to pay to the plaintiffs a sum of money for their acts of reckless and or willful conduct. The ideas of punitive damages was imposed as a deterrent from reckless,willful conduct. However, the amount of punitive damages awarded have been the topic of my debates leaving some to criticize, that plaintiffs are overly compensated specifically voicing opinions or concerns that a limit should be imposed on punitive damages. Circumstances justifying the recognition of punitive damages based upon the defendant acting intentionally, maliciously, or without regard to the rights of the plaintiff and interests of the claimant. Punitive damages first established in England in 1763. Civil law in the United States recognized punitive damages in 1850. (5) "According to the U.S. Supreme Court, three factors guide a decision to award enhanced damages (punitive damages)": The action of the defendant was willful or deliberate, "whether the infringer had a good faith belief that the patent was invalid", and litigants conduct during the litigation. (4) A jury verdict to impose an amount of punitive damages may be over-turned by the trial judge, if the award is considered to be excessive or inadequate. (6) "A fundamental goal of a punitive damage award is to punish but not bankrupt the wrongdoer." (9) Five States do not recognize or award punitive damages in any...
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