Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Settling Multidefendant Lawsuits: The Advantage of Conditional Setoff Rules

Contents:

Author Info

  • Klerman, Daniel
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    In cases involving multiple defendants, each defendant's incentive to settle is influenced by the setoff rule enforced in the relevant jurisdiction. This article suggests that the effect of a setoff rule depends on whether the setoff is conditional on a finding that the settling defendant or defendants were legally liable. Previous research, which assumed that the setoff was unconditional, found that the two principal rules applied by modern courts - the pro tanto and proportionate share rules - often discourage settlement when the plaintiff's probabilities of prevailing against each defendant are not perfectly correlated. This article shows that the disincentive to settlement can be reduced or eliminated by making the setoff conditional on the liability of the settling defendant or defendants. The conditional setoff rules are of practical as well as theoretical interest because several states currently apply them. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.

    Download Info

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Legal Studies.

    Volume (Year): 25 (1996)
    Issue (Month): 2 (June)
    Pages: 445-62

    as in new window
    Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:25:y:1996:i:2:p:445-62

    Contact details of provider:
    Web page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS/

    Related research

    Keywords:

    References

    No references listed on IDEAS
    You can help add them by filling out this form.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as in new window

    Cited by:
    1. Hviid, Morten & Medvedev, Andrei, 2010. "The role of contribution among defendants in private antitrust litigation," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 306-316, December.
    2. Howard F. Chang & Hilary Sigman, 1999. "Incentives to Settle Under Joint and Several Liability," NBER Working Papers 7096, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Howard F. Chang & Hilary Sigman, 2005. "The Effect of Joint and Several Liability Under Superfund on Brownfields," NBER Working Papers 11667, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Yeon-Koo Che & Kathryn E. Spier, 2007. "Exploiting Plaintiffs Through Settlement: Divide and Conquer," Discussion Papers 0607-18, Columbia University, Department of Economics.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:25:y:1996:i:2:p:445-62

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Journals Division).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.