Author: James S. Kakalik

Publisher:

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13:

This report examines the money spent to resolve asbestos-related injury lawsuits: who pays it, who receives it, and for what purposes. After sketching the tangled context in which spending occurs for asbestos product liability litigation in the introduction, subsequent sections analyze the actual costs incurred by plaintiffs, defendants, and insurers in the course of processing asbestos suits to resolution. The analysis focuses on net compensation (money received by injured persons after deducting litigation expenses), and on defense and plaintiff expenses (money paid to operate the legal and insurance systems through which society decides who should receive how much compensation and arranges for actual payment). Finally, the authors total the expenditures and examine the ratio between litigation expense payments and net compensation (the "overhead" costs incurred in generating one dollar in payment to an injured person).

Author: James S. Kakalik

Publisher:

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13:

This report analyzes characteristics of individual claims that explain variation in compensation and expenses. The first section describes the research approach and sketches the tangled context in which spending occurs for asbestos product liability litigation. Section II presents data on the characteristics of closed claims and on the actual compensation paid and expenses incurred by plaintiffs, defendants, and insurers in 1980-1982. Section III focuses on explaining the variation in total compensation. Sections IV, V, and VI, respectively, analyze claim characteristics that help explain why certain claims receive no compensation, identify which claims proceed to trial instead of being closed before trial, and identify which claims result in punitive awards. Sections VII and VIII analyze the variations in defense and plaintiff litigation expenses. Finally, Section IX totals the expenditures and examines the ratio between litigation expense payments and net compensation.