Citation

Rockefeller NA. Cathol. Univers. Law Rev. 1972; 21: 351.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1972, Catholic University of America Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present legal structure for compensating victims of automobile accidents is the product of a horse and buggy age having little resemblance to the present day. The structure has become irrelevant to our times because it has failed to keep pace with the new realities and demands of modern life. The critical fault of the existing automobile liability insurance system is the fault principle upon which it is based. We are fortunate, however, to be witnessing month by month an increased public awareness and understanding of this inherent and basic defect in the present system of compensating automobile accident victims, and indeed a growing public demand for a fundamentally different and more equitable way of dealing with the problem.

The Fault System The glaring failings of the present system in practice are evident to any observer. Accident victims are shortchanged as a result of the enormous expenses incurred in operating the complex structure required by the present system. Of every dollar paid in personal injury liability insurance premiums. lawyers and claims investigators receive 23 cents and the expenses of running the insurance company and paying agents consume another 33 cents. Only 44 cents is left for compensating injured parties to an accident.' By any standard the system is grossly inefficient and wasteful of vast sums which would be better spent compensating victims. In New York State the fault system pays absolutely nothing to one out of every four persons injured in an automobile accident, and other studies show that the proportion of uncompensated victims in some jurisdictions may be somewhat larger.

The present system fosters overcompensation of the slightly injured and undercompensation of those seriously injured.