Record Details

Accidental Death and the Rule of Joint and Several Liability

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Accidental Death and the Rule of Joint and Several Liability
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/25508
 
Creator Carvell, Daniel
Currie, Janet M
MacLeod, W Bentley
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Most U.S. states have enacted JSL reform, the move from a regime of joint and several liability (JSL) that allows plaintiffs to claim full recovery from any one of multiple defendants to one where defendants are held liable only for the harm they cause. Contrary to previous theoretical work, we show that JSL reform can increase precaution by judgment proof agent by giving “deep pockets” an incentive to reduce their own liability by bringing judgment-proof agents into court. This result can help explain our empirical findings showing that JSL reform reduces death rates (and hence increase precaution) for many types of accidents. Together, these results highlight the role that litigation costs and judgment-proof agents play in the functioning of the American tort system.
 
Subject tort law, joint and several liability, law and economics
 
Date 2012