The Impact of Tort Reform in the United States

The tort reform movement in the United States has had significant effects on the civil justice system and public perceptions of the law. This article explores the movement's history, its direct impacts on legal doctrine and judicial practices, and its indirect consequences for legal consciousness and perceptions of the courts. Tort reformers strategically propagated misleading narratives that emphasized a litigation crisis and decried the competence of juries, influencing public opinion and shaping legislative and judicial reforms that restricted access to justice. Despite significant empirical evidence debunking many of the tort reformers’ claims, these narratives continue to resonate. This article advocates for renewed scholarly attention to these effects and to other, potentially more far-reaching, impacts of tort reform, such as the movement's impacts on the rights of politically and legally vulnerable groups, public confidence in the civil justice system, and views of legal institutions and actors more broadly.