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Over the past two decades, the United States has seen a dramatic increase in the number and magnitude of punitive damages verdicts rendered by juries in civil trials. Probably the most extraordinary example is the July 2000 award of $144.8 billion in the Florida class action lawsuit brought against cigarette manufacturers. Or consider two recent verdicts against the auto manufacturer BMW in Alabama. In identical cases, argued in the same court before the same judge, one jury awarded $4 million in punitive damages, while the other awarded no punitive damages at all. In cases involving accidents, civil rights, and the environment, multimillion-dollar punitive awards have been a subject of intense controversy. But how do juries actually make decisions about punitive damages? To find out, the authors-experts in psychology, economics, and the law-present the results of controlled experiments with more than 600 mock juries involving the responses of more than 8,000 jury-eligible citizens. Although juries tended to agree in their moral judgments about the defendant's conduct, they rendered erratic and unpredictable dollar awards. The experiments also showed that instead of moderating juror verdicts, the process of jury deliberation produced a striking "severity shift" toward ever-higher awards. Jurors also tended to ignore instructions from the judges; were influenced by whatever amount the plaintiff happened to request; showed "hindsight bias," believing that what happened should have been foreseen; and penalized corporations that had based their decisions on careful cost-benefit analyses. While judges made many of the same errors, they performed better in some areas, suggesting that judges (or other specialists) may be better equipped than juries to decide punitive damages. Using a wealth of new experimental data, and offering a host of provocative findings, this book documents a wide range of systematic biases in jury behavior. It will be indispensable for anyone interested not only in punitive damages, but also jury behavior, psychology, and how people think about punishment.
Written by one of the leading asbestos experts for attorneys, occupational and environmental health professionals, and others in the field of toxic substances control, this updated resource provides a comprehensive examination of the public health history of asbestos. Includes extensive discussion of corporate knowledge and responsibility for asbestos hazards and detailed discussion of alternatives to asbestos.
This selection of papers encompasses recent methodological advances in several important areas, such as multivariate failure time data and interval censored data, as well as innovative applications of the existing theory and methods. Using a rigorous account of statistical forecasting efforts that led to the successful resolution of the John-Manville asbestos litigation, the models in this volume can be adapted to forecast industry-wide asbestos liability. More generally, because the models are not overly dependent on the U.S. legal system and the role of asbestos, this volume will be of interest in other product liability cases, as well as similar forecasting situations for a range of insurable or compensational events. Throughout the text, the emphasis is on the iterative nature of model building and the uncertainty generated by lack of complete knowledge of the injury process. This uncertainty is balanced against the court's need for a definitive settlement, and how these opposing principles can be reconciled. A valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the field of survival analysis.
When the Manville Corporation filed under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code in 1982, it was the most financially healthy company ever to do so. Its action temporarily halted product-liability lawsuits brought against the company by the victims of asbestos-related cancer and other diseases. "Outrageous Misconduct" updates Paul Brodeur's remarkable four-part series of articles on the asbestos industry that appeared in "The New Yorker". It examines Manville's unprecedented -- and headline-making -- maneuver; it exposes the efforts of other asbestos manufacturers to avoid compensating asbestos victims; and it reveals the involvement of some of the nation's highest officials in trying to bail out the asbestos industry from its financial and legal difficulties. In "Outrageous Misconduct" Brodeur reveals in depth and detail the story of how Manville and other companies effected a fifty-year coverup of the asbestos hazard. He also tells the story of how a handful of dedicated trial lawyers have pieced together the overwhelming evidence of this coverup and used it in courtrooms across the nation to win hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from the asbestos industry and its insurers. -- From publisher's description.
This book is for the busy and new practitioner who is building their experience and expertise in asbestos claims. It is not written from the perspective of one side or the other. It is intended to neutrally state the position of the law and procedure in relation to dealing with claims of asbestos-related injury and to give some honest, frank and practical guide in doing so. Invariably, asbestos litigation is complex and time-consuming, and as such it is hoped that this practical guide will be a readily available initial source of reference to assist the practitioner who needs to refresh themselves on a certain topic, or to assist the practitioner in providing a core grounding of the key issues likely to be encountered in their caseload. It has been our privilege to practice in this area of law and it is an even bigger privilege for us to share those experiences and points of understanding with those who read this book. We sincerely hope it provides the type of assistance, and to some degree, re-assurance, that we all need from time to time in our work in this area of litigation. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Jonathan Owen was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 2004, having completed his undergraduate degree at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Bar Vocational Course at Nottingham Law School. He is a tenant at Ropewalk Chambers, in Nottingham, where he has practised since completion of pupillage. He has a broad civil practice with a particular focus on personal injury and industrial disease work. Gareth McAloon was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 2010. He is a tenant at Ropewalk Chambers, in Nottingham. Gareth specialises in all aspects of personal injury work, predominantly on the Multi-Track. He is a specialist practitioner in all aspects of industrial disease claims including; asbestos claims, NIHL claims, HAVS claims and repetitive strain injuries. In addition, Gareth is instructed in inquests and clinical negligence claims. The high value nature and complexity of the cases he deals with means that he has regular contact with medical and engineering experts both in Court and in his case preparation.
For decades, manufacturers from around the world relied on asbestos to produce a multitude of fire-retardant products. As use of the mineral became more widespread, medical professionals discovered it had harmful effects on human health. Mining and manufacturing companies downplayed the risks to workers and the general public, but eventually, as the devastating nature of asbestos-related deaths became common knowledge, the industry suffered terminal decline. A Town Called Asbestos looks at how the people of Asbestos, Quebec, worked and lived alongside the largest chrysotile asbestos mine in the world. Dependent on this deadly industry for their community’s survival, they developed a unique, place-based understanding of their local environment; the risks they faced living next to the giant opencast mine; and their place within the global resource trade. This book unearths the local-global tensions that defined Asbestos’s proud history and reveals the challenges similar resource communities have faced – and continue to face today.