Whatever happened to no-fault? - no-fault automobile insurance

Washington Monthly, April, 1986 by Peter Spiro, Jeffrey O'Connell

In spite of all the compromises, it's worth noting that even watered-down no-fault laws can claim success on several fronts. According to the Department of Transportation, no-fault compensates more people (roughly twice as many) with greater benefits (79 percent more) in quicker payments (almost all no-fault payments, as opposed to only half of all tort awards, are made during the first year following injury). No-fault also has benefited taxpayers: while no-fault hasn't reduced lawsuits as much as it should have, thousands of accident-related small claims have been kept out of court. Since the average jury tort case costs the taxpayers $8,300, those thousands of cases add up to millions of dollars saved. To cite just one example, during the four years before no-fault was enacted in Massachusetts in 1971, the average number of automobile accident tort cases annually was nearly 32,000; during the four years that followed enactment, that average dropped to 12,000.

There is one last benefit no-fault might bring to our society: it might cure us of the habit of minimizing our own fault and maximizing that of others. There is something depressing about a process that encourages people to behave suspiciously at best and dishonestly at worst. Lawsuits over automobile accidents, where frequently both drivers were somewhat at fault, are forums where the tendency to lie is particularly strong. Even the most public-spirited among us can find ourselves subtly distorting the truth in the courtroom. It isn't worth the queasy feeling that results. Let's give no-fault another chance.