A Statistical Profile of Pharmaceutical Industry Liability, 1976-1989

Abstract

There is little question that the imposition of constraints on awards and other pro-defendant changes in the liability regime will reduce liability costs. However, the patterns observed in the federal courts are quite pronounced, far beyond what even the most ardent proponent of liability reform may have expected. Recent research analyzing the specific effect of liability reforms on general liability insurance and medical malpractice insurance suggests that these measures did have a significant role in limiting liability costs. 18 Damage cap reforms appear to have been particularly influential. However, the effect on liability insurance costs is not as dramatic as the stark shifts in Federal litigation patterns in the late 1980s, which suggest that other aspects of the liability regime may be influential as well.