The Judicial Treatment of Noneconomic Compensatory Damages in the 19th Century

Authors

Ronald J. Allen, Northwestern University School of Law
Alexia Brunet, University of Colorado Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

Year

2007

Citation Information

Ronald J. Allen and Alexia Brunet, The Judicial Treatment of Noneconomic Compensatory Damages in the 19th Century, 4 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 365 (2007), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/1244.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2007.00092.x

Abstract

Do high verdicts for tort cases containing noneconomic damages have historical precedent? We present the results of our empirical inquiry into the treatment of noneconomic compensatory damages by the courts from 1800-1900. Using 1,175 tort cases from this era, we show that, notwithstanding constant reiteration of jury discretion over damages, courts tightly controlled awards. In fact, no case prior to 1900 permitted a noneconomic compensatory damages award exceeding $450,000 in current dollars. Logistic regression results reveal that an increase in total monetary damages is positively and significantly related to the probability of reversal when noneconomic damages were claimed, and that comparability review decreases the probability of reversal.

Comments

"©2007, Copyright the Authors."

Copyright Statement

Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.