Non-economic damages caps
Encyclopedia
Non-economic damages caps are controversial tort reform
Tort reform
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in common law civil justice systems that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort actions are civil common law claims first created in the English commonwealth system as a non-legislative means for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to...

s to limit (i.e., "cap") damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...

 for intangible harms such as severe pain, physical and emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of the enjoyment of life that an injury has caused, including sterility, physical impairment and loss of a loved one, etc. These are, collectively, referred to as hedonic damages
Hedonic damages
Hedonic Damages, an economic term of art, refers to loss of enjoyment of life damages, the intangible value of life, as distinct from the human capital value or lost earnings value.- History :...

.

Non-economic damages compensate injuries and losses that are not easily quantified by a dollar amount. Also known as quality-of-life damages, this compensation covers the family of victims who have died, or severely injured victims.

Efficacy of caps

Many states have debated, passed legislation or amended their constitutions to create such caps. Former President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 proposed a nationwide $250,000 cap in medical malpractice
Medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. Standards and...

 cases. In the area of medical malpractice
Medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. Standards and...

, tort reform advocates claim that insurance premiums would decrease, both making medical care more affordable and eliminating a disincentive for doctors to practice. In contrast, critics contend that high medical malpractice insurance rates are a result of the cyclical nature of the insurance industry, lack of competition, mismanagement of reserves and a decline in investment income. http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijhca/vol3n1/capping.xml



There are further disputes over if these caps would reduce overall medical costs for patients at all. A study by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office

Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides economic data to Congress....

 published in 2004 found that “Malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 spending." However, tort reformists cite other possible effects of limiting tort liability, such as reducing the extent to which physicians practice “defensive medicine” and preventing widespread problems of access to health care.

Fair compensation

Non-economic damages are the only compensation a jury can provide for the injury itself, as opposed to reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses
Out-of-pocket expenses
Out-of-pocket expenses are direct outlays of cash which may or may not be later reimbursed.In operating a vehicle, gasoline, parking fees and tolls are considered out-of-pocket expenses for the trip...

 such as the plaintiff's lost wages, medical bills, and legal fees. This type of compensation is especially important for people who do not work outside the home, like the elderly, children, and homemakers. The "worth" of a homemaker's work inside the home is not easily measured by a dollar amount, and would only be compensated through non-economic damages.

Tort reform supporters argue that it is difficult for juries to assign a dollar value to these losses with the guidance they are normally given. They state that there is no basis for non-economic damages, and uncapped non-economic damages violate the equitable principles of justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

 by being inherently quite random, because different juries will always come to different results. Because of the highly charged environment of personal injury trials, they fear some unbounded non-economic damage awards. In Ernst v. Merck, a Texas Vioxx products liability case, the jury issued a verdict of $24 million in non-economic damages for a widow of a 59 year old triathlete who died from arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat that could have been prevented had Merck provided warnings about the drug. Tort reform supporters point out the widow had not been married a long time, and suggest this award was excessive.



In contrast, opponents of tort reform contend that jurors should assess damages on a case-by-case basis and that damages should not be arbitrarily capped by a legislature.

Right to trial by jury

Opponents of caps on damages argue that caps on the amount of damages jurors can award violate the right to a trial by jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...

.http://www.seanet.com/~rod/marbury.html Because tort law has historically been a question of state law, states have the power to establish a constitutional right to a trial by jury in civil cases. Historically, juries have decided both the question of liability and the question of how much damages to award in tort cases, subject to instructions on the law by a judge. Several state appellate courts that have considered the issue have struck down damages caps as violative of state constitutions.http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbusters-free/MB_Unconstitutional.htm


Separation of powers

Some tort reform supporters, such as the conservative Federalist Society, have criticized such decisions as a violation of the concept of separation of powers
Separation of powers
The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...

.http://www.fed-soc.org/pdf/Nullification.PDF.



In contrast, critics of caps contend and state courts have held that legislatures violate the principle of separation of powers when they attempt to impose arbitrary damage caps on juries, who function as part of the judicial branch of government. In Best v. Taylor Machine Works, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages functioned as a "legislative remittitur" and invaded the power of the judiciary, in violation of the separation of powers clause. The court noted that courts are empowered to reduce excessive verdicts where appropriate in light of the evidence. The cap, however, reduced damages by operation of law, without regard to the specific circumstances of the case. http://www.roscoepound.org/new/digest/wint98.htm


Equal protection

In 2005, a Wisconsin court ruled that a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the state's equal protection guarantee. In Ferdon v. Wisconsin Patient's Compensation Fund, the court ruled that there was no rational relationship between the objectives identified by the legislature that were intended to prevent a medical liability crisis in Wisconsin and treating people with more severe injuries and higher noneconomic damage awards different from people with lower noneconomic damage awards. http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/physician_resources/court_ferdonshort.cfmhttp://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbusters-free/MB_Unconstitutional.htm

External links

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