The Impact of Damage Caps on Civil Litigation: Experimental and Field Analyses

当前关于诉讼改革的争论中，一个主要问题是是否限制原告在诉讼中可以获得的赔偿金额。现在大约有30个州采用了某种类型的“损害上限”，限制对痛苦、惩罚性损害赔偿和其他非经济损害赔偿的支付。然而，很少有研究考察它们对诉讼过程的影响。本研究采用实验和实地分析，并借鉴经济学、心理学和法学等学科，探讨损害赔偿上限对诉讼提起和和解的影响。在研究的第一阶段，我们通过三个审前议价实验来探索损害上限影响和解前景的行为机制。初步证据表明，当损害上限相对较低时，它增加了解决的可能性。然而，一个非常高的损害上限实际上会减少和解的前景，因为它为原告提供了一个向上的“焦点”。这意味着，在一个特定的州，上限规定将提高大案的和解率，而降低小案的和解率。进一步的实验将探索这些发现相对于上限水平的敏感性，并允许描述沉降的行为过程。在研究的第二阶段，我们收集了大量关于美国可操作的损害上限的现场数据，并估计其对提交和庭外和解索赔数量的影响。这项实证工作大大扩展了以前的工作，已经进行了。首先，收集的数据涵盖的时间比以前研究的要长得多，而且它确定了最有效的上限类型。其次，我们的分析改进了之前的研究，通过比较上限（“治疗”组）和不受上限（“对照组”组）覆盖的案件的前和后提交和和解。实验和现场方法的结合提供了对损害上限对诉讼过程的影响的更完整的理解。实验分析有助于理解由上限引起的行为变化，检查其对沉降的后续影响，并探索结果对上限水平的敏感性。现场数据分析通过估计上限影响的大小和识别特别有影响力的上限类型来补充实验分析。这两项分析都将为关于损害上限影响的辩论提供信息，并建议如何设计上限法规以符合政策目标。

A major issue in the current debate over litigation reform concerns whether to limit the amount a plaintiff can recover in a lawsuit. Approximately thirty states now employ some type of `damage cap` that limits payments for pain and suffering, punitive damages, and other non-economic damages. However, very little research has examined their effect on the litigation process. This research uses experimental and field analysis and draws on the disciplines of economics, psychology, and law to explore the effects that damage caps have on the filing and settlement of lawsuits. In the first stage of the research, we conduct three pre-trial bargaining experiments to explore the behavioral mechanisms by which damage caps affect the prospects for settlement. Preliminary evidence suggests that when the damage cap is relatively low, it increases the likelihood of settlement. However, a very high damage cap can actually reduce the prospects for settlement by providing plaintiffs with an upward `focal point`. This implies that in a particular state, a cap statue will improve settlement rates for big cases and worsen them for small cases. Further experimentation will explore the sensitivity of these findings with respect to the level of the cap and allow a description of the behavioral processes underlying settlement. In the second stage of the research we collect extensive field data on the damage caps that are operable in the U.S. and estimate their impact on the number of claims filed and settled out-of- court. This empirical work significantly expands on previous work that has been conducted. First, the data collected covers a substantially longer time period than has been previously studied and it identifies the types of caps that are most effective. Second, our analysis improves on previous research by comparing the pre- and post-cap filing and settlement of cases covered by the cap (the `treatment` group) to those not covered by the cap (the `control` group). The combination of experimental and field methodologies provide a more complete understanding of the impact of damage caps on the litigation process. The experimental analysis helps to understand the behavioral changes induced by a cap, examine their ensuing effect on settlement, and explore the sensitivity of the results to the level of the cap. The field data analysis complements the experimental analysis by estimating the magnitude of the effect of caps and identifying the types of caps that are particularly influential. Both analyses will inform the debate about the effect of damage caps and suggest how cap statutes can be designed to comport with policy goals.