Product Liability

PROJECT

Making the Civil Justice System More Efficient and Equitable — Oct 3, 2011

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) conducts research on all aspects of civil justice, from trends in litigation and jury verdicts to punitive damages, compensation systems, and alternative dispute resolution. Directly or indirectly, civil justice issues have an impact on us all.

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REPORT

Links Between Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts, Tort Cases Examined — Aug 18, 2011

Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.

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• News Release

NEWS RELEASE

Links Between Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts, Tort Cases Examined — Aug 18, 2011

Asbestos bankruptcy trusts—created to compensate people injured by the mineral—may be influencing tort cases. The current way that the trusts and the tort cases are linked together may result in payments that are not consistent with the basic principles of the tort liability system.

• News Release

JOURNAL ARTICLE

The Effects of Product Liability Exemption in the Presence of the FDA — Nov 30, 2009

n the United States, drugs are jointly regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, which oversees premarket clinical trials designed to ensure drug safety and efficacy, and the liability system, which allows patients to sue manufacturers for unsafe drugs. In this paper, the authors examine the potential welfare effects of this dual system to ensure the safety of medical products, and conclude that product liability exemptions for FDA…

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Framing the Compensation Inquiry — Dec 31, 2003

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Medical Monitoring for Pharmaceutical Injuries — Dec 31, 2002

At the direction of the funding agencies (the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)), and in consultation with our Technical Expert Panel, the authors addressed research questions regarding the efficacy of herbal ephedra and ephedrine for weight loss and athletic performance through…

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Newspaper Coverage of Automotive Product Liability Verdicts — Dec 31, 1998

For product liability verdicts during 1983 to 1996 involving automobile manufacturers, the authors examine the amount of coverage in several dozen newspapers.

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Product and Stock Market Response to Automotive Product Liability Verdicts — Dec 31, 1998

In this paper, the authors attempt to develop information about a narrow but important piece of a very complex puzzle -- the sketchy economic effects of product liability.

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Product Liability, Punitive Damages, Business Decisions and Economic Outcomes — Dec 31, 1997

This article aims to help readers think systematically about the economic effects of product liability and punitive damages.

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

The real world of tort litigation — Dec 31, 1997

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JOURNAL ARTICLE

Estimating Liability Risks with the Media as Your Guide: A Content Analysis of Media Coverage of Tort Litigation — Dec 31, 1996

A content analysis of 249 articles from Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week during 1980-1990 examined the representativeness of popular media coverage of tort litigation.

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RESEARCH BRIEF

Can Reform Improve the Economic Effects of Product Liability? Evidence From the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industries — Dec 31, 1993

This research brief summarizes the economic effects of product liability in the drug and medical device industries, how the system produces those effects, and what kinds of reforms could increase the system's benefits while reducing its costs.

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• Related Report

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Understanding Mass Personal Injury Litigation: A Socio-Legal Analysis — Dec 31, 1993

The civil justice system has not responded well to the challenge of handling mass torts, and many innovations have been proposed to improve processing of these cases.

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• Research Brief
• Law and Business Research Area

REPORT

What we know and don't know about product liability — Dec 31, 1992

An edited transcript of written testimony delivered in September 1991 to the Consumer Subcommittee of the United States Senate Commerce Committee. The author covers five topics: trends in product liability; the nature and extent of product-associated...

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RESEARCH BRIEF

Corporate Liability: How Big Is the Real Price Tag? — Dec 31, 1988

In the last decade, U.S. corporations have faced growing legal liabilities. Peter Reuter tests a framework for analyzing how these liabilities might affect corporations economically, and offers evidence of liability’s influence on corporate behavior.

• Research Brief
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REPORT

The Economic Consequences of Expanded Corporate Liability: An Exploratory Study — Dec 31, 1987

Presents a framework for analyzing how expanded liability might affect such outcomes as productivity and international competitiveness and offers some preliminary evidence on the impact of expanded liabilities on the behavior of corporations.

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• Research Brief

REPORT

Summary of Research Results on Product Liability — Dec 31, 1985

This paper is an edited transcript of written testimony delivered in October 1986 to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.

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REPORT

Summary of research results on the tort liability system — Dec 31, 1985

This paper was originally presented as testimony before the Consumer Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in February 1986. It presents results of research conducted by the Institute for Civil Justice relevant...

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REPORT

Designing Safer Products: Corporate Responses to Product Liability Law and Regulation — Dec 31, 1984

Analyzes ways in which firms have responded to recent changes in pressures to design safer products, based on interviews with product safety officials in major manufacturers and extensive analysis of legal and scholarly literature.

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REPORT

Costs and Benefits of the Tort System If Viewed as a Compensation System — Dec 31, 1976

Compares the costs of operating the tort liability system for four major branches of tort law: product liability, automobile liability, workers' compensation, and medical malpractice.

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