The first doses of newly approved vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are slowly rolling out to the public. A RAND virtual event focused on (1) facilitating global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and (2) preventing liability and compensation concerns from affecting the vaccine supply chain and public uptake of the vaccine.
The authors describe illustrative instances of human-made disasters in which the potentially responsible party (PRP) offered early assistance to the affected community. The authors also explore the benefits and drawbacks of such assistance in stakeholders' eyes and examine potential approaches that policymakers might want to take in encouraging PRPs to provide early assistance.
This report reviews various alternatives to relying exclusively on traditional civil litigation to assign responsibility for the human causes of a catastrophe and to determine the types of losses that a designated responsible party must reimburse. It also reviews examples of circumstances in which statutory substitutes for the traditional tort system have been adopted for dealing with at least some of the consequences of widespread harm.
In a consumer society, the procedures for providing compensation to many claimants are very important, especially as litigation becomes more public due to 24/7 news and the Internet. During this May 19, 2017, conference, participants explored issues that affect compensation speed, efficiency, and fairness. These conference proceedings explore stakeholder observations on the changing roles of regulators, the impact of liens, and claim aggregation.
This report aims to help designers of victim compensation programs make decisions that balance fairness to victims, speed of compensation, and size of transaction costs. It does so by highlighting major issues that designers are likely to confront, considering multiple outcomes of design decisions, and recognizing conflicts or trade-offs in pursuing fairness without undue delay or excessive transaction costs.
Explores the issue of how victim compensation funds (VCFs) impact a victim's likelihood to sue using the tort system. VCFs have become a feature of the policy landscape following high-profile tragedies.
Congress enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in 2002, in response to terrorism insurance becoming unavailable or extremely costly in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. TRIA is set to expire at the end of 2014, and Congress is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. This policy brief examines how markets for workers' compensation insurance would be affected if TRIA were to expire.
Though the historical occurrence of maritime terrorist attacks has been limited, maritime vessels and facilities may nevertheless be vulnerable to attack, with the potential for very significant consequences in the form of mass casualties, severe property damage, and disruption of commerce. This book explores maritime terrorism threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences, as well as the application of civil liability.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, caused tremendous loss of life, property, and income, and the resulting response from public and private organizations was unprecedented. This monograph examines the benefits received by those who were killed or seriously injured on 9/11 and the benefits provided to individuals and businesses in New York City that suffered losses from the attack on the World Trade Center. The authors examine the performance of the compensation system – insurance, tort, government programs, and charity – in responding to the losses stemming from 9/11.
