August 01, 2007

The George Mason economist/blogger (and friend of this site) has a guest commentary in Forbes concentrating on the problem of local court bias, problem jurisdictions, and related "home cooking" ills. Excerpt:

Such awards help judges get re-elected. In a remarkably frank admission, Richard Neely, a West Virginia Supreme Court judge (now retired), explained the incentives that govern elected judges: "As long as I am allowed to redistribute wealth from out-of-state companies to injured in-state plaintiffs, I shall continue to do so. Not only is my sleep enhanced when I give someone else's money away, but so is my job security, because the in-state plaintiffs, their families and their friends will re-elect me."

When Neely's book The Product Liability Mess came out back in 1988, I reviewed it here.