Tort reform, especially damage caps, has hampered victims access to the legal system to obtain just compensation for their injuries, but has it played a role in allowing automakers hide defects? According to a piece in the New York Times, some auto accident victim's experience with the legal system because of the tort reform damage caps, allowed the faulty ignition switch in some GM vehicles to be hidden from the public for almost a decade. As reported, an 18 year-old Natasha Weigel was killed after her GM vehicle smashed into a tree, the police investigation determined the air bags failed to deploy due to the car's ignition powering off in 2006. The investigatory conclusion indicated a possible design defect, but as the family attempted to obtain legal counsel, most balked. The $350,000 damage cap in Wisconsin was expected to be lower than the cost to fight GM in court.
Today it is known that at least 42 people have died in accidents linked to the defective ignition switch and the primary impetus behind the recall was a lawsuit filed in Georgia. Importantly, Georgia does have tort reform damage caps in product liability lawsuits. Logically, the tort reform damage caps limits the ability of a plaintiff to bring forward a claim, making it difficult to create public awareness. It wasn't until GM settled with the Georgia family for $5 million dollars that the official recall, ultimately affecting 2.6 million vehicles, began.
Even more disconcerting, before the Georgia case, GM settled other cases involving the faulty ignition switch, but required the cases be settled under confidential terms. This limited lawyers from gaining necessary information about the scope of the product defect and plaintiffs simply slipped through the cracks. Tort reform advocates always pushed reform under the guise of limiting frivolous claims plaguing the industry, but in reality, the tort reform damage caps prevented public awareness of faulty products, putting more consumers at risk.
