@maporsche,
"Tort reform" is a two-edged sword. You can't simply look at one side of the equation and calculate "savings" with respect to one side alone. There are two competing sides to examine:
1) Tortfeasors: Costs and benefits both to the individual tortfeasors and to society; and
2) Victims: Costs and benefits both to the individual victims and to society as a whole.
Our lawmakers have taken huge steps over the last 2 to 3 decades in the name of "tort reform" to protect tortfeasors from the consequences of their torts. Lawmakers have made it almost impossible for victims to access the courts without jumping through many costly hoops and have made it almost impossible for victims who manage to make it to the end (sometimes taking years) to obtain a judgment that awards them the full measure of their damages.
What happens to victims who do not have the money, stamina, and legal assistance necessary to battle with tortfeasors? What happens when victims cannot obtain compensation, let alone the full measure of damages, for their injuries? What are the benefits vs. costs to society when tortfeasors escape liability and their victims become a burden upon society? Do we allow individual victims and society to suffer in our efforts to protect tortfeasors?
Perhaps we ought to examine the feigned victimhood of tortfeasors who are driving this debate and defining it as a war against "abusive lawsuits." Poor, poor, poor, tortfeasors! They are being abused!
