I know you all have been siting around waiting for ALSBTALK to drift
off LSAT scores as predictors of superior Supreme Court judicial acumen,
and so disappointed that there has been so little discussion of damages.
Your long wait is over.

      I have been keeping my eyes open for topics related to damages that
you might have a student research or you might take on yourself.  I have
come up with two that I believe are relatively fresh and manageable.

      FIRST:
      When an expert is calculating damages for a personal injury [a] must,
[b] may, [c] may not, or [d] must not the expert use life expectancy tables
that are based on race and/or sex?  Is the 14th Amendment violated by a
State court awarding blacks today smaller damages because blacks of
yesteryear lived shorter lives?  Must the courts forecast when the vestiges
of previously judicable discrimination will have dissipated with respect to
life today, 5 years hence, 20 years hence, etc.?

      SECOND:
      The law of damages often, but not always, ignores reduction in
damages experienced by the plaintiff due to inflows of revenues.  These are
called collateral sources.  For example, health insurance covering the
plaintiff might shield the plaintiff from paying medical costs caused by
the defendant's wrongful action.  Subrogation is one motive for such a
collateral source rule.  However, tort reform adopted by some States gives
an odd definition to collateral source and instead of preserving the
plaintiff's (and the insurer's subrogation) right to be made whole and in
those States the damages owed by the defendant are reduced by the
collateral source.  For example, if a family member quits a job to provide
daily care to a quadriplegic, as opposed to hiring 24/7/365 care from the
market, then the tort reform sees no damage.  A table showing the
collateral source laws of the 50 States et al. would be fascinating.  OK,
maybe not fascinating, but certainly informative and quite useful.  This
might be an excellent project for a research team.

Michael

Professor Michael J. O'Hara, J.D., Ph.D.
Finance, Banking, & Law Department        Editor, Journal of Legal
Economics
College of Business Administration        (402) 554 - 2014 voice fax (402)
554 - 3825
Roskens Hall 502                    www.AAEFE.org
University of Nebraska at Omaha           www.JournalOfLegalEconomics.com
Omaha  NE  68182
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(402) 554 - 2823 voice  fax (402) 554 - 2680
http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/mohara/web/ohara.htm