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Newspaper Coverage of Automotive Product Liability Verdicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Steven Garber  and
Anthony G. Bower
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Abstract

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Media coverage of litigation may affect perceptions and thereby behavior of litigants, judges, juries, legislators and business decisionmakers. Their behavior influences various legal, social, political and economic outcomes. For product liability verdicts during 1983 to 1996 involving automobile manufacturers, we examine the amount of coverage in several dozen newspapers. We find almost no articles reporting on any of 259 verdicts for the defendant. Econometric analysis focuses on determinants of the amount of coverage of 92 verdicts for plaintiffs, 16 of which include punitive damages. Key determinants include the award amount, the nature of injuries, the vehicle's recall history, and especially the existence of a punitive component of damages regardless of its size.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , 1999 , pp. 93 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

Financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the RAND Institute for Civil Justice is gratefully acknowledged. Conclusions and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute for Civil Justice, RAND, or their research sponsors. We thank John Adams, James Dertouzos, seminar participants at RAND, and three thoughtful reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions, and Eva Feldman, Sung-Ho Ahn, Susan McGlamery, Joan Schlimgen and Roberta Shanman for extensive and expert assistance.

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