July 27, 2004

Last month the Congressional Budget Office released a paper which "reviews the major studies that evaluate the effects of state-level tort reforms and assesses the relevance of that research to similar federal proposals." ("The Effects of Tort Reform: Evidence from the States", Jun.). Although the studies cited in the survey point in a variety of directions, the paper is useful to keep on hand if only to refute some of the more extreme claims that sometimes emanate from the Litigation Lobby, such as the claim that limits on damages have not been found to reduce liability insurance premiums. The paper is described as a companion to a CBO study from October 2003, "The Economics of U.S. Tort Liability: A Primer". More: Martin Grace comments.