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3 books match the query 'Liability'

cover of Covering Accident Costs: Insurance, Liability, and Tort Reforms

Covering Accident Costs

Insurance, Liability, and Tort Reforms

Mark C. Rahdert

Temple University Press, 1995

Over the past century, tort law and insurance have developed deeply intertwined legal and economic roots. Insurance usually determines whether tort cases are brought to trial, whom plaintiffs sue, how much they claim, who provides the defense, how the case gets litigated, the dynamics of the settlement, and how much plaintiffs ultimately recover. But to what extent should liability rules be influenced by insurance? In this study, Mark Rahdert identifies the leading arguments both in favor of and against what he terms the "insurance rationale"—the idea that tort law should be structured to facilitate victim access to assured compensation.

The insurance rationale has been a leading force in the development of product liability law and, as a component of accident compensation, has significantly influenced pro-plaintiff advances in principal areas of tort law. However, the insurance rationale is also the source of great controversy. Critics charge that liability rules deliberately set to maximize plaintiffs' access to insurance funds have corrupted the system, causing insurance costs to spiral upward uncontrollably. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the current debate, Rahdert develops a modified version of the insurance rationale that can become a tool for evaluating future tort reform proposals.

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cover of Ensuring Corporate Misconduct: How Liability Insurance Undermines Shareholder Litigation

Ensuring Corporate Misconduct

How Liability Insurance Undermines Shareholder Litigation

Tom Baker and Sean J. Griffith

University of Chicago Press, 2010

Shareholder litigation and class action suits play a key role in protecting investors and regulating big businesses. But Directors and Officers liability insurance shields corporations and their managers from the financial consequences of many illegal acts, as evidenced by the recent Enron scandal and many of last year’s corporate financial meltdowns. Ensuring Corporate Misconduct demonstrates for the first time how corporations use insurance to avoid responsibility for corporate misconduct, dangerously undermining the impact of securities laws.

As Tom Baker and Sean J. Griffith demonstrate, this need not be the case. Opening up the formerly closed world of corporate insurance, the authors interviewed people from every part of the industry in order to show the different instances where insurance companies could step in and play a constructive role in strengthening corporate governance—yet currently do not. Ensuring Corporate Misconduct concludes with a set of readily implementable reforms that could significantly rehabilitate the system.

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cover of Products Liability in the Automobile Industry: A Study in Strict Liability and Social Control

Products Liability in the Automobile Industry

A Study in Strict Liability and Social Control

Cornelius Gillam

University of Minnesota Press, 1960

Products Liability in the Automobile Industry was first published in 1960.This is a study of the products liability of automobile manufacturers, the legal and economic basis of this liability, its meaning to business management, and measures which could be taken fore refinement of the concept. The phrase “products liability” refers to the legal responsibility of sellers to compensate buyers for losses suffered because of defects in the goods purchased.The author traces the development of modern products liability with primary reference to the automobile industry. He discusses or cites every American court decisions dealing with products liability of manufacturers of automobiles or automobile accessories, or analogous goods such as tractors, farm implements, trucks, tires, or engines. He points out that court decisions in automobile cases have been second only to those in food cases in formulating principles of products liability.This work offers the first complete appraisal of the automobile cases and of products liability in the automobile industry in general, provides a statement of the managerial implications of products liability, and, for the first time, relates the principles of products liability to an industry’s overall economic structure. The conclusions are significant to wide areas of law, economics, business, and sociology, and are of special importance to the insurance industry.
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