IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlstud/v36y2007is2ps231-s259.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Empirical Assessment of Early Offer Reform for Medical Malpractice

Author

Listed:
  • Joni Hersch
  • Jeffrey O'Connell
  • W. Kip Viscusi

Abstract

The early offer reform proposal for medical malpractice provides an option for claimants to receive prompt payment of all their net economic losses and reasonable attorney fees. Using a large sample of closed individual medical malpractice claims from Texas supplemented by data from Florida, this article provides an empirical assessment of the consequences of the early offer reform. Noneconomic damages make up about two-thirds of paid claim amounts. The minimum payment amount for serious injuries will affect the magnitude of insurer savings and claimant compensation. Payments to claimants will be expedited by 2 years by the early offer reform, and litigation costs will be reduced by an average of $100,000-$200,000 per claim. (c) 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Suggested Citation

  • Joni Hersch & Jeffrey O'Connell & W. Kip Viscusi, 2007. "An Empirical Assessment of Early Offer Reform for Medical Malpractice," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S2), pages 231-259, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:36:y:2007:i:s2:p:s231-s259
    DOI: 10.1086/519464
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/519464
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/519464?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel P. Kessler & Daniel L. Rubinfeld, 2004. "Empirical Study of the Civil Justice System," NBER Working Papers 10825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Petroni, Kathy Ruby, 1992. "Optimistic reporting in the property- casualty insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 485-508, December.
    3. W. Kip Viscusi & Patricia H. Born, 2005. "Damages Caps, Insurability, and the Performance of Medical Malpractice Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 23-43, March.
    4. Jennifer J. Gaver & Jeffrey S. Paterson, 1999. "Managing Insurance Company Financial Statements to Meet Regulatory and Tax Reporting Goals," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 207-241, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Friedson & Thomas Kniesner, 2012. "Losers and losers: Some demographics of medical malpractice tort reforms," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 115-133, October.
    2. Patricia Born & W. Kip Viscusi & Tom Baker, 2009. "The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 76(1), pages 197-219, March.
    3. Bernard Black & David A. Hyman & Charles Silver, 2010. "O'Connell Early Settlement Offers: Toward Realistic Numbers and Two‐Sided Offers," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 379-401, June.
    4. Leonardo Felli & Johannes Koenen & Konrad O. Stahl, 2011. "Competition and Trust: Evidence from German Car Manufacturers," CESifo Working Paper Series 3358, CESifo.
    5. Zhou, J., 2010. "Access to justice : An economic approach," Other publications TiSEM 9d70f451-35c4-4878-92bf-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Zhou, Jun, 2010. "The Timing of Out-of-Court Settlements Revisited: Theory and Cross- Sectional Evidence from Texas since 1988," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 347, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    7. Bernard Black & David A. Hyman & Charles Silver, 2009. "The Effects of “Early Offers” in Medical Malpractice Cases: Evidence from Texas," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(4), pages 723-767, December.
    8. Zhou, Jun, 2010. "Determinants of Noneconomic Damages in Medical Malpractice Settlements and Litigations: Evidence from Texas since 1988," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 348, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Patricia Born & W. Kip Viscusi & Tom Baker, 2009. "The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 76(1), pages 197-219, March.
    2. Martin F. Grace & J. Tyler Leverty, 2010. "Political Cost Incentives for Managing the Property‐Liability Insurer Loss Reserve," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 48(1), pages 21-49, March.
    3. M. Martin Boyer & Elijah Brewer & Willie Reddic, 2019. "The Association between Complexity and Managerial Discretion in the Property and Casualty Insurance Industry," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-33, September.
    4. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2004. "Do insurers manipulate loss reserves to mask solvency problems?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 393-416, September.
    5. Fiordelisi, Franco & Meles, Antonio & Monferrà, Stefano & Starita, Maria Grazia, 2013. "Personal vs. Corporate Goals: Why do Insurance Companies Manage Loss Reserves?," MPRA Paper 47867, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Hung, Jessica & Chang, Vincent Y. L., 2018. "The analysis of capital structure for propertyliability insurers: A quantile regression approach," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(4), pages 829-850, August.
    7. Adams, Mike & Hardwick, Philip & Zou, Hong, 2008. "Reinsurance and corporate taxation in the United Kingdom life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 101-115, January.
    8. Boyer, M. Martin & Cowins, Elicia P. & Reddic, Willie D., 2019. "Portfolio rebalancing behavior with operating losses and investment regulation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 313-328.
    9. Georges Dionne & Denise Desjardins, 2017. "Reinsurance Demand and Liquidity Creation," Working Papers 17-3, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    10. M. Martin Boyer & Elicia P. Cowins & Willie D. Reddic, 2020. "Operational risk management and regulatory investment constraints on portfolio allocation: evidence from property and casualty insurers," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 20-52, February.
    11. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    12. Silva, Aldy Fernandes da & Weffort, Elionor Farah Jreige & Flores, Eduardo da Silva & Silva, Glauco Peres da, 2014. "Gerenciamento de resultados e crises econômicas no mercado de capitais brasileiro," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 54(3), May.
    13. Santolino, Miguel, 2010. "Determinants of the decision to appeal against motor bodily injury judgements made by Spanish trial courts," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 37-45, March.
    14. Lee, Soon-Jae & Smith, Michael L., 1999. "Property-casualty insurance guaranty funds and insurer vulnerability to misfortune," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1437-1456, September.
    15. Charles L. Baum, 2020. "The effects of medical malpractice tort reform on physician supply an analysis of legislative changes from 2009 to 2016," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(2), pages 540-575, October.
    16. Patricia Born & J. Bradley Karl & Charles Nyce, 2024. "Availability of the seat belt defense: Implications for auto liability insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 91(1), pages 193-212, March.
    17. Hao Yu & Olesya Baker, 2022. "Do noneconomic damage caps reduce medical malpractice insurance premiums? Evidence from North Carolina," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 201-218, June.
    18. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 755-793, September.
    19. Joseph Legoria & Kevin D. Melendrez & J. Kenneth Reynolds, 2013. "Qualitative audit materiality and earnings management," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 414-442, June.
    20. Jiang Cheng & Travis Chow & Tzu‐Ting Lin & Jeffrey Ng, 2022. "The effect of accounting for income tax uncertainty on tax‐deductible loss accruals for private insurers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(2), pages 505-544, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:v:36:y:2007:i:s2:p:s231-s259. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.