Damages and Compensation Culture

The focus of the essays in this book is on the relationship between compensation culture, social values and tort damages for personal injuries. A central concern of the public and political perception of personal injuries claims is the high cost of tort claims to society, reflected in insurance premiums, often accompanied by an assumption that tort law and practice is flawed and improperly raising such costs. The aims of this collection are to first clarify the relationship between tort damages for personal injuries and the social values that the law seeks to reflect and to balance, then to critically assess tort reforms, including both proposals for reform and actual implemented reforms, in light of how they advance or hinder those values. Reforms of substantive and procedural law in respect of personal injury damages are analysed, with perspectives from England and Wales, Canada, Australia, Ireland and continental Europe. The essays offer valuable insights to anyone interested in the reform of tort law or the tort process in respect of personal injuries.

Autorentext

Eoin Quill is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Limerick and a fellow of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL) in Vienna.
Raymond J Friel is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the International Commercial and Economic Law Group in the School of Law at the University of Limerick.

Inhalt

Part I: General Features of the Relationship between
Damages and Compensation Culture

1. 'The Whiplash Capital of the World': Genealogy of a Compensation Myth
   Ken Oliphant
2. Structural Factors Affecting the Number and Cost of Personal Injury Claims in the Tort System
   Richard Lewis
3. A Reflexive Approach to Accident Law Reform
   Erik S Knutsen
   Part II: Damages Reform in Various Jurisdictions
4. Reforming English Tort Law: Lessons from Australia
   James Goudkamp
5. Non-Pecuniary Damages for Personal Injury: A Reflection on the Canadian Experience
   Jeff Berryman
6. Identifying and Calculating Personal Injury Damages in Ireland, Italy, France and Belgium: Recent Debates between Scholars, Judges and Practitioners
   Denise Amram
   Part III: The Process for Delivery of Damages
7. Deconstructing Policy on Costs and the Compensation Culture
   Annette Morris
8. Personal Injuries Assessment Board: A Decade of Delivery?
   Dorothea Dowling
9. An Overview of the Role of Medical Panels in Victorian Legislation
   Dr Carol A Newlands
   Part IV: Compensation and Personal Responsibility
10. Concurrent Fault at 90: A History of Ontario's Negligence Act and Canada's Uniform Contributory Fault Act
    John C Kleefeld
11. Individualism and Autonomy in Occupiers' Liability and Compensation Culture
    Desmond Ryan
12. Compensation Culture and Sport
    Tim O'Connor