No-Fault Auto Reparation in Florida: An Empirical Examination of Some of Its Effects

This article discusses certain aspects of reparations systems that can be described by statistical parameters, but it does not attempt to evaluate whether or not pervasive sociological changes may result from legal modifications of the concept of fault. It may be that any erosion of fault as a legal concept will result in a decline in individual responsibility. The fact that some members of the bar and some members of the medical profession allegedly regularly engage in conspiracies to defeat the $1,000 medical expense threshold of the Florida statute could be cited as evidence of such deterioration. Nevertheless, this writer doubts that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between no-fault and the corruption of professionals. It is more likely that the corruption of professionals helped to create the need for no-fault and that the abuse of no-fault, if it exists, is merely the reassertion of an underlying condition that has not been cured. No system should be evaluated solely on the basis of abuses perpetrated by those who are supposed to tend and nurture it. Sooner or later the professions must effectively police themselves and, if they do not do so, then the populace should through the law.