Dear Colleagues:

 

Congratulations go out to Eoin Quill and Raymond J Friel (eds) on the publication of Damages and Compensation Culture with Bloomsbury.  As you will see from the abstract below, several ODGers have contributed to this excellent collection.

Abstract

 

The focus of the essays in this book is on the relationship between compensation culture, social values and tort damages for personal injuries. A central concern of the public and political perception of personal injuries claims is the high cost of tort claims to society, reflected in insurance premiums, often accompanied by an assumption that tort law and practice is flawed and improperly raising such costs. The aims of this collection are to first clarify the relationship between tort damages for personal injuries and the social values that the law seeks to reflect and to balance, then to critically assess tort reforms, including both proposals for reform and actual implemented reforms, in light of how they advance or hinder those values. Reforms of substantive and procedural law in respect of personal injury damages are analysed, with perspectives from England and Wales, Canada, Australia, Ireland and continental Europe. The essays offer valuable insights to anyone interested in the reform of tort law or the tort process in respect of personal injuries.

 

Part I: General Features of the Relationship between Damages and Compensation Culture

1. Ken Oliphant, ‘The Whiplash Capital of the World’: Genealogy of a Compensation Myth

2. Richard Lewis, Structural Factors Affecting the Number and Cost of Personal Injury Claims in the Tort System

3. Erik S Knutsen, A Reflexive Approach to Accident Law Reform

 

Part II: Damages Reform in Various Jurisdictions

4. James Goudkamp, Reforming English Tort Law: Lessons from Australia

5. Jeff Berryman, Non-Pecuniary Damages for Personal Injury: A Reflection on the Canadian Experience

6. Denise Amram, Identifying and Calculating Personal Injury Damages in Ireland, Italy, France and Belgium: Recent Debates between Scholars, Judges and Practitioners

 

Part III: The Process for Delivery of Damages

7. Annette Morris, Deconstructing Policy on Costs and the Compensation Culture

8. Dorothea Dowling, Personal Injuries Assessment Board: A Decade of Delivery?

9. Dr Carol A Newlands, An Overview of the Role of Medical Panels in Victorian Legislation

 

Part IV: Compensation and Personal Responsibility

10. John C Kleefeld, Concurrent Fault at 90: A History of Ontario’s Negligence Act and Canada’s Uniform Contributory Fault Act

11. Desmond Ryan, Individualism and Autonomy in Occupiers’ Liability and Compensation Culture

12. Tim O’Connor, Compensation Culture and Sport

 

Happy Reading,

 

Jason Neyers
Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
Western University
Law Building Rm 26
e. jneyers@uwo.ca
t. 519.661.2111 (x88435)