What are your feelings about this subject?
2007-07-20 06:32:15 · 3 answers · asked by Amanda K 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Torts are a great way to punish corporate malfesance. It seems as the pressure for tort "reform" grows, so does the rate of corporate negligence and/or deliberate crime.
Economically speaking, torts provide a means of introducing social costs into a free market. Since all companies' goal is to make a profit, they do not consider pollution, unemployment, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, and other social ills to be a cost. They will make decisions without cosidering these types of ramifications because they are focused on profit. The tort system is a way of introducing an actual monetary cost of social degradation, which prevents companies from engaging in egregiously destructive behavior.
2007-07-20 06:42:57 · answer #1 · answered by TheEconomist 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Tort law is one of the earliest forms of civil law. It provides a valuable remedy when someone has been harmed.
That being said, it's often abused to do things that are really pretty stupid. The trick is trying to find a way to solve the problem, without hurting the people who are actually truly harmed and thus entitled to recovery.
2007-07-20 13:35:59 · answer #2 · answered by coragryph 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Best I can tell it hasn't worked. It was supposed to lower insurance premiums but it hasn't. It has stoped frivolous lawsuits, along with viable ones. It now allows big business to make decisions based on profits without the fear of doing something that could result in them being held financially accountable.
2007-07-20 13:38:49 · answer #3 · answered by Don 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋