Justinian Lane

What’s YOUR Stance On Damage Caps?

As you’re probably aware, one of the main goals of tort “reform” is to place limits upon the amount of compensation a jury may award to an injured person. These limits are traditionally referred to as damage caps. Most tort “reform” proposals would cap only noneconomic damages, which are damages that don’t have a fixed price, such as awards for pain and suffering or loss of a loved one. Economic damages are those damages that do have a fixed price, such as medical bills and lost wages.

It’s no secret that I oppose noneconomic damage caps, no matter what they are. But I’d like to know your opinion on damage caps. Do you think we should implement them? If so, what should they be? Rather than just answering those questions, I’d like you to perform a little exercise for me.

Pretend you’re on a jury in a case in which a drunk driver crashed into another car and caused the following injuries to a family:

Killed an 80 year-old grandmother;
Killed a 35 year-old stay-at-home mom;
Paralyzed her 9 year-old child from the neck down;
Mangled the 40 year-old father’s legs beyond repair.

The father has lost his wife, his mother, and his legs. He’s also forced to see his child spend its life in a wheelchair. The child lost its mother, grandmother, and the ability to live a normal life.

Your job is to decide how to compensate the father and the child for their losses. Just cut and paste the following, and then type in what you would award if you were on the jury. If you believe we need damage caps, enter that in first. Don’t worry about how much the defendant (who is guilty) CAN pay, only what he SHOULD pay. Also, don’t try and punish the drunk by awarding more money than you would if he was sober. Your awards should be purely to compensate the father and child.

Damage Cap: $

Father:
For the loss of his mother: $
For the loss of his wife: $
For the loss of his legs: $
For his child’s paralysis: $

Child:
For the loss of its mother: $
For the loss of its grandmother: $
For its paralysis: $

If you’d rather not post it publicly, you can email your figures to me at: JustinianATcorpreform.com. I’ll post a followup to this with my own figures, as well as with an analysis of why cases like this make damage caps a bad idea.

Posted at 1:13 PM, Oct 19, 2006 in Civil Justice | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)