Related Practices
Elizabeth Kniffen and Bryant Green to Present at APCIA National General Counsel Conference
October 2, 2023Elizabeth Kniffen, a partner in Zelle's Minneapolis office, and Bryant Green, a senior associate in Zelle's Washington, DC office, will present "When to Hold ‘Em and When to Fold ‘Em - Restoring the Traditional Purpose of Tort Law in Combating Social Inflation and Nuclear Verdicts" at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) National General Counsel Conference on October 2, 2023, in San Antonio, TX.
The topic summary:
Increasingly, a dispute resolution system designed to restore an injured party to exactly his or her pre-loss condition is distorted into a lottery where speculators gamble for the next multi-million-dollar verdict—at the innocent premium-payer’s expense. This session will explore the macroeconomic drivers of social inflation and nuclear verdicts. Specifically, this discussion will consider how phenomena such as reptile tactics, anchoring, phantom damages, deceptive advertising, and third-party litigation financing are employed to fundamentally alter the traditional purpose of tort law and impose upward pressure on claim values to cover the overhead of interlopers with outstretched palms. Finally, this session will offer a perspective on the extent that the real risks of social inflation are inaccurately inflated by anecdotal perceptions and offer practical guidance for reversing these trends and changing the cultural narrative about the purpose of tort law by making objective data-driven claims decisions, combating “Golden Rule” arguments, uprooting anchors, and aligning insurer’s interests with those of its insureds and claimants so as to make litigation unappetizing.
