Tort Reforms Enacted By Minnesota

Modify Joint-and-Several Liability:
States have based the amount for which a defendant can be held liable on the proportion of fault attributed, but the formulas differ substantially from state to state. In addition, most of the reforms apply to specific types of torts or have other restrictions.

Modify the Collateral-Source Rule:
Typical reforms either permit evidence of collateral-source payments to be admitted at trial, allow awards to plaintiffs to be offset by other payments, or both

Limit Noneconomic Damages:
The caps range from $250,000 to $750,000. More than half of the reforms apply to torts involving medical malpractice.

Limit Punitive Damages:
Various types of limits include outright bans; fixed dollar caps ranging from $250,000 to $10 million; and caps equal to a multiple of compensatory awards.