Tort Reform Lessons from the Gulf Oil Spill

Scott Stroud recently wrote an interesting post about the effects the Gulf Oil Spill may have on tort reform. He discusses the fact that the current cap on damages caused by Oil drillers will not cover the damages caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. He then points out that many of the same politicians that have used the mantra of personal responsibility to pass caps on damages are now claiming that the caps on damages in this case should be removed because BP has to be held personally accountable. Hopefully Mr. Stoud is right about the effect of the gulf oil spill has on the tort reform argument.

My experience as a personal injury attorney in Tampa lead me to conclude long ago that tort reformers have the personal responsibility argument backwards. They claim that caps on damages are necessary because personal injury victims do not want to take responsibility for what happened to them. Of course they don't. They did not cause the harm so why should they pay for it.

The goal of personal injury law is to hold wrongdoers accountable for the damage they have caused. In truth, the goal of Tort reform and caps on damages is exactly the opposite. It is nothing more than an attempt to shelter the one that caused the harm from paying for the true cost of the harm they have caused. It is unfortunate that it took something like the BP oil spill to begin the process of waking the public.