December 17, 2006

Total (direct) tort costs of $261 billion; up in total, but down slightly per capita and as a percentage of GDP. The greatest failing of the Towers Perrin study, of course, is its failure to measure indirect tort costs (e.g., Aug. 8; Jun. 28, 2005; see also WSJ Mar. 13), which by far outweigh the direct costs, but it's a good proxy for the direction of growth. The release of the study will result in sniping from the usual litigation lobby suspects; for refutations of those tired arguments, see May 26, 2005; Jan. 19, 2005; and Jan. 9, 2004. NB that the old link to the Towers Perrin May 17, 2005, rebuttal is broken; that document can now be found here.