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Liability rules under evidentiary uncertainty

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  • Fluet, Claude

Abstract

This paper characterizes the efficient evidentiary thresholds for establishing negligence when courts have imperfect evidence about care. An evidentiary threshold refers to the "weight of evidence", given the risk of error, for ruling that a party was at fault and differs from the substantive due care standard that the party should meet. I show that efficient evidentiary thresholds differ between liability rules and are therefore inconsistent with a general invariant standard of proof. In particular, they require a greater "weight of evidence" than the common law standard of the preponderance of evidence, which tends to induce overcompliance.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal International Review of Law and Economics.

Volume (Year): 30 (2010)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 1-9

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Handle: RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:30:y:2010:i:1:p:1-9

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/irle

Related research

Keywords: Contributory negligence Comparative negligence Moral hazard Standard of proof Punitive damages;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Marie-Cécile Fagart & Claude Fluet, 2009. "Liability insurance under the negligence rule," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 486-508.
  2. Marcel Boyer & Donatella Porrini, 2010. "The Impact of Court Errors on Liability Sharing and Safety Regulation for Environmental/Industrial Accidents," CIRANO Working Papers 2010s-48, CIRANO.
  3. Julien Jacob, 2011. "Innovation and diffusion in risky industries under liability law: the case of “double-impact” innovations," Working Papers of BETA 2011-24, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.

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