Innovative Negligence Rules

On Negligence Rules and Self-Selection

Economic models of negligence ordinarily involve a single standard of care that all injurers must meet to avoid liability. When injurers differ in their costs of care, however, this leads to distortions in their care choices. This paper derives the characteristics of a generalized negligence rule that induces injurers to selfselect their optimal care levels. The principal features of the rule a...

Effects of the civil procedure rules on clinical negligence claims.

The frequency with which clinicians can expect to face allegations of clinical negligence and court proceedings related to those allegations is likely to increase in coming years. The processes of investigation and defence have been modified by the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules in 1999. This review outlines these developments and emphasises the need for speedy and comprehensive resp...

Empirical Comparisons of the Contributory versus Comparative Negligence Rules

The liability rule traditionally used in accident law when both the injurer’s and the victim’s behaviour affect the likelihood of an accident occurring is the rule of contributory negligence. Under it, the injurer is liable for the full amount of the victim’s damage only if the injurer’s behavior is negligent and the victim’s behavior is non-negligent. If both parties are negligent, only the vi...

Professional Negligence

Intoxication, Recklessness and Negligence

According to what is here called the “Intoxication Recklessness Principle,” a defendant who, thanks to voluntary intoxication, is unaware of a condition of which a reasonable person would have been aware is to be treated as though he were reckless with respect to that condition, rather than negligent. And, according to what is here called the “Intoxication Negligence Principle,” a defendant who...