Liability Protection Research Articles

Artifical Intelligence as Disruption Factor in the Civil Law: Impact of the use of Artifical Intelligence in Liability, Contracting, Competition Law and Consumer Protection with Particular Reference to the German and Indonesian Legal Situation

The Article describes the impact of artificial intelligence in different areas of the civil law, namely tort law, contract law, antitrust law and consumer protection law. It shows that the use of artificial intelligence already leads to legal constellations, which cannot longer easily subsumized under elementary terms of the civil law and therefore cause a real disruption in the civil law. Terms, which are based on a freedom concept of the subjective rights of the actors, such as private autonomy and contractual will not fit anymore to the activity of artificial intelligence systems the more those systems are able to act independant of human actors. Similar applies to terms which are referring to the freedom of decision like the market behaviour in the competition law. The article discusses several solution approaches, such as personification approches, agent-principal approaches and the definition of new categories of market and contractual acting. In the consumer protection the special focus in the future legal development will be on the problem how to achieve adequate, though not overflowing, transparency for consumers, especially regarding the combination of big data and algorithms.

Patient Decision Aids Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Medical Liability Risk

Tort-based doctrines of informed consent have utterly failed to assure that patients understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives to the healthcare they receive. Fifty years of experience with the doctrine of informed consent have shown it to be an abject catastrophe. Most patients lack an even minimal understanding of their treatment options. But there is hope. Substantial evidence shows that patient decision aids (PDAs) and shared decision making can bridge the gap between the theory and practice of informed consent. These evidence-based educational tools empower patients to make decisions with significantly more knowledge and less decisional conflict than clinician-patient discussions alone. Unfortunately, despite robust evidence of effectiveness, few U.S. clinicians use PDAs when they deliver healthcare services. This must change. It is time to move PDAs from research to practice, from the lab to the clinic. This Article describes a key tool that can nudge clinicians to use PDAs with their patients: the monetary incentive of a professional liability insurance premium reduction. Medical malpractice insurance companies should offer premium discounts to clinicians who use PDAs. This incentive will spur PDA use. And PDA use will improve patient safety. That benefits both patients and malpractice insurers. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Unrealized Promise of Patient Decision Aids A. What Are Patient Decision Aids? B. PDAs Are Effective at Empowering Patients C. Too Few Clinicians Use PDAs III. Medical Liability Insurers Should Incentivize Clinicians to Use PDAs by Offering Premium Discounts A. Medical Malpractice Insurers Already Use Premium Discounts to Incentivize Other Risk-Reducing Conduct B. Offering Premium Discounts Will Spur Wider PDA Uptake IV. PDAs Reduce Liability Risk from Negligent Nondisclosure Claims. A. Medical Liability Insurers Face Significant Risk Exposure from Negligent Nondisclosure Claims 1. Negligent Nondisclosure Claims Are Common 2. Negligent Nondisclosure Claims Are Expensive to Handle B. Carrots and Shields: Using PDAs Enhances Liability Protection. 1. De Jure Safe Harbor Legal Immunity 2. De Facto Safe Harbor Legal Immunity C. Sticks and Swords: Failing to Use PDAs Increases Liability Risk for Negligent Nondisclosure 1. Disclosure Mandates and Presumptions of Negligence 2. Growing Liability Risk under the Reasonable Patient Disclosure Standard D. Using PDAs Reduces Risk by Improving Documentation V. PDAs Reduce Liability Risk from Other Medical Malpractice Claims A. Medical Liability Insurers Face Significant Risk Exposure from Medical Malpractice Claims B. PDAs Result in Better Outcomes and Fewer Claims C. PDAs Result in More Satisfied Patients Who Bring Fewer Claims VI. Conclusion

Vaccines Immunize People; Legislation Immunizes Vaccine Manufacturers. Legislation in the United States Regulating Liability for the Manufacture, Distribution and Administration of Vaccines

Infectious diseases have caused widespread misery, and have wreaked havoc physically, mentally, economically, politically, and socially. Fortunately, in more recent years, scientists have developed vaccines. Vaccines are generally very safe, but cause side effects in a small percentage of cases. The United States Congress has passed two major pieces of legislation that provide sweeping tort immunity to vaccine manufacturers and others. In 1986 Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) and in 2005 it passed the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP ACT). Both Acts were passed to encourage manufacturers to develop vaccines, particularly in times of public emergencies, in exchange for expansive liability protection. Both Acts established no-fault type compensation schemes to compensate those suffering injury or death from vaccines without having to resort to typical litigation. The author discusses both Acts in detail, in the context of the current Covid-19 crisis.

The Limits of Limited Liability: Evidence from Industrial Pollution

ABSTRACTWe study how parent liability for subsidiaries' environmental cleanup costs affects industrial pollution and production. Our empirical setting exploits a Supreme Court decision that strengthened parent limited liability protection for some subsidiaries. Using a difference‐in‐differences framework, we find that stronger liability protection for parents leads to a 5% to 9% increase in toxic emissions by subsidiaries. Evidence suggests the increase in pollution is driven by lower investment in abatement technologies rather than increased production. Cross‐sectional tests suggest convexities associated with insolvency and executive compensation drive heterogeneous effects. Overall, our findings highlight the moral hazard problem associated with limited liability.

The medico‐legal helpline: A content analysis of postgraduate medical trainee advice calls

Available literature exploring medical liability and postgraduate medical education consistently posits that postgraduate trainees worry about their exposure to medico-legal liability. This assumption has formed the basis for research and curriculum development. The aim of this study was to describe the encounters that lead physicians-in-training to seek external medico-legal guidance. We sought to provide empirical evidence on trends and themes related to medico-legal advice requests from physicians-in-training. Our primary dataset consisted of records of calls from physicians-in-training to the medico-legal helpline of the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), a national mutual defence organisation providing medico-legal advice and liability protection for over 95% of Canada's physicians. We conducted a trend analysis of the frequency of calls for advice over 10years from physician-in-training compared with non-trainee physicians. Furthermore, we performed a content analysis of calls made over the most recent 2years (2016-2017) to elucidate the concerns that led to trainees seeking medico-legal advice. The 10-year trend analysis revealed that the annual growth in the number of physician-in-training advice calls (8.8%) exceeded other CMPA physician groups and was in excess of trainee population growth over the same period. The content analysis identified four core themes: managing confidential information, complex care situations, academic matters and patient safety incidents. Our findings indicate that trainees are asking questions about their medico-legal liability with increasing frequency. This study contributes new evidence on the issues that lead to trainees seeking help. We believe that understanding trainees' medico-legal advice requests will support medical educators to tailor quality improvement education to learners' needs.

The Superpower of the PALTC Clinician

The Superpower of the PALTC Clinician

Issues and Tasks of Personal Information Protection Liability Insurance

Issues and Tasks of Personal Information Protection Liability Insurance

Liability Protection for COVID-19 Health Care Providers

Federal and state authorities extend Good Samaritan laws.

The Tax Provisions of the HEALS Act

This paper summarizes the tax proposals in the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act (HEALS Act) introduced on July 27, 2020.

HEALS Act gives SAPT block grant another $1.5 billion

The next COVID‐19 stimulus package has been partially released by the Senate, led by Republicans and prepared in conjunction with the White House. Called the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act, it specifically targets health care, jobs and supports for children.

Covid-19 and medical liability: A delicate balance.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries around the world are considering whether and how to provide liability protection to front-line healthcare staff. The guiding principle of liability protection for physicians and others is to ensure that, in a serious emergency situation, health professionals can devote themselves exclusively to their work and to patient care, without the fear of future claims for unforeseeable, but above all unavoidable, injury, loss and damage caused by their conduct. Great care is needed to balance the interests and rights of all those involved. Liability protection could have risky consequences with the final result that doctors will not be protected, but institutions such as health facilities will be even if they were in fact responsible for foreseeable and avoidable damage.

Combating Disinformation on Social Media: Multilevel Governance and Distributed Accountability in Europe

Online disinformation poses a challenge to democratic societies and has become a prominent issue on the research and political agenda. While many analyses focus on patterns of distribution and reach of disinformation, this article contributes to the analysis of strategies to counter disinformation. Employing a governance perspective, it provides a descriptive analysis of the emerging mix of governance responses in the European system of multilevel governance and on the continuum between market and state. Results of the analysis show that the proliferation of disinformation on social media has developed from a socio-technical mix of platform design, algorithms, human factors and political and commercial incentives. Actors and technologies involved provide a starting point for targets of governance within an accountability network. In practice, national governance responses are uneven across the EU, but individual countries pressing for stronger regulation of internet platforms and a weakening of liability protections. In addition, the European Commission has intensified its efforts to combat disinformation and put additional pressure on platforms to take action and provide some level of transparency. However, clarity about the effects of these measures is blurred by contradicting evidence and barriers for research to access platforms and relevant data.

Contribution and Distribution Flexibility and Tax Pass-Through Entities

The way jurisdictions design their tax systems for business operations can be a contentious issue, as they try to balance the competing goals of raising sufficient tax revenue without unduly inhibiting commercial investment and activities. Such tax design can be of particular importance for small and medium enterprises, which due to their size, inherent characteristics, and resources can struggle with tax compliance. Those attributes can also make business tax regressive. A number of countries around the world have adopted business entities that utilise corporate characteristics, such as liability protection for members and separate legal entity status, but have the characteristic of tax pass-through, with members assessed directly on the income and losses of the entity. Examples include limited liability partnerships (LLPs) in the United Kingdom, look-through companies in New Zealand, and limited liability companies (LLCs) in the United States.In some jurisdictions, these tax pass-through entities have been extremely popular, which in part has been attributed to flexibility for the members in terms of governance and the facilitation of contributions and subsequent distributions. This flexibility is arguably a desired commercial feature of business entities. However, such flexibility with contributions and distributions is seen as a potential risk to tax revenue as there is concern with artificial engineering in order to lower the overall tax burden. This has led to tax integrity measures, which by their very nature can potentially restrict flexibility.For example, LLCs and their members are subject to greater (and potentially more complex rules) when it comes to measuring the cost basis of their membership interests; this then influences members’ ability to utilise allocated losses and the tax treatment of distributions. The flexibility of contributions and distributions for LLPs in the United Kingdom has also raised concerns with the introduction of tax integrity measures. By comparison, the United States’ older tax pass-through entity, the S Corporation, with only one class of membership interest, has fewer integrity rules governing allocations.This Article will critically assess how the flexibility of contributions and distributions by these tax pass-throug entities affects the tax rules that apply to their members. We argue that the flexibility of contributions and distributions appears to be a key characteristic demanded by business entities both for commercial and tax reasons. However, investors need to be cognitive of the inherent complexity and costs that this flexibility may entail. Additionally, it is important for governments and revenue authorities not to unduly restrict flexibility with complex tax integrity rules as it is a fine balance between commercialand revenue needs.

COVID-19-A Guide to Rapid Implementation of Telehealth Services: A Playbook for the Pediatric Gastroenterologist.

COVID-19-A Guide to Rapid Implementation of Telehealth Services: A Playbook for the Pediatric Gastroenterologist.

Florida Agritourism Building and Fire Codes

Agritourism marries Florida’s two largest industries, tourism and agriculture, to provide an on-farm recreational experience for consumers. Although Florida trails many other states in the number of agritourism operations, the number of Florida farms offering recreational experiences more than doubled from 2007 to 2012. This new 4-page document describes building codes relevant to Florida agritourism operations. Written by Mary Beth Henry and Kathryn A. Stofer, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc349
 A companion document, Florida’s Agritourism Laws, EDIS publication AEC623, Florida’s Agritourism Laws, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc285, discusses Florida Statutes related to definitions, liability protections, and limits to regulatory authority of local governments over bona fide agricultural operations engaged in agritourism.

Acts of Congress and COVID-19: A Literature Review on the Impact of Increased Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Stimulus Checks

This Note is meant to present an overview of what economists have analyzed regarding the implications of two main components of the CARES Act that impact individuals: the increased UI benefits and the stimulus checks. We present the findings from the literature on these two policies with an eye on potential future governmental interventions.

Lady Ada: Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries, Intellectual Property and Open Source Hardware

This paper provides a profile of Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries – as an advocate of open source hardware, and a policy campaigner for intellectual property law reform. This work considers the copyright challenges for open source hardware – particularly with the US Supreme Court decision on copyright subsistence in Star Athletica LLC. v Varsity Brands Inc., and ongoing conflicts over intermediary liability and technological protection measures. It reviews the trademark disputes of Adafruit Industries – looking at the matter of Fried v Linco Inc. It explores the intervention of the Open Source Hardware Association in the design patent dispute in Luxembourg v Home Expressions Inc. It analyses how Adafruit Industries has engaged in defensive patenting, and pushed for patent law reform in dialogues with President Barack Obama. The conclusion considers how open source hardware advocates such as Limor Fried and Adafruit can play an important role in intellectual property law reform in the future. It also explores current and future challenges for Adafruit and open source hardware – including the current coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis.

Corporate Family Matters

Corporate groups dominate the American economy. Known publicly by a single name—Chevron, Apple, McDonald’s, or Google—these companies are a web of affiliated entities, each with its own separate legal identity. Yet, corporate laws have failed to develop a statutory scheme that acknowledges these relationships among entities. While corporate personhood, separateness, and the accompanying liability protection are the primary reasons for using the corporate form, or business entities in general, form can be exploited by bad actors who seek to take advantage of the natural legal silos that define each legal entity in a corporate group as a stand-alone person. These legal silos enable bad actors to hide in plain sight, or to give the perception of a full disclosure without consequence, making some of the most egregious conduct either fraud that is difficult to unravel or behavior that is disturbing but legal. This oversight leaves the system vulnerable to market manipulation through complex business structure. As a result, consumers and investors, many concerned with corporate social responsibility and impact investing, and motivated to do business with companies that support their social causes, can be manipulated into investing and spending by the silos and veils of separateness. When individuals act in a way that defrauds the market or causes harm, criminal law, securities law, and even tort and contract law provide remedies. When companies manipulate the market across business sectors, the antitrust laws intervene. When an individual corporation manipulates the market or engages in fraud, shareholder derivative litigation in conjunction with securities regulation provide a remedy. What is missing is a solution for market manipulation using corporate groups, and in particular, the corporate family. A system is needed for acknowledging entities that work for a common good, as the current structure enables these entities to manipulate what is known to investors and consumers for purposes of altering stock price, either intentionally or incidentally. This approach is the first to distinguish corporate groups by merging substantive corporate law with procedural protocols. This Article proposes a definition and governance regime for a particular type of corporate group—the corporate family. It defines the family as an enterprise formed by weaving corporations, partnerships, and LLCs together into a mix of public and private entities acting for the benefit of a parent corporation or for the personal gain of one or more leaders of the enterprise. A corporation should be treated like a family when (1) there is more than one entity with shared ownership or management, or when an entity is wholly owned by another entity, and (2) that entity operates for the promotion of the parent’s business purposes or the manager or owner’s business interests. When businesses meet the standard for corporate family treatment, they are required to acknowledge influence and look to the real party in interest when determining what is material, what should be reported to shareholders, and conflicts of interest. This proposed corporate family structure acknowledges influence, while maintaining principles of corporate personhood by taking a procedural approach to determining when an entity should be deemed a family. To disregard all groups and in particular families leaves a gap in the regulatory regime that is easy to manipulate and exploit. By acknowledging influence and treating applicable corporations as a family, the market can gain a clearer and more accurate picture of business operations.

Information Sharing By Spanning Trees of a Graph By Labelled Sequence as A Key

Keeping the Information Sharing to manage cyber risks as a key, Security Intelligence speaks about secured data every day in today’s world. Hence it is considered that Cyber security is a Data Analytics challenge. For this reason, many researchers were effectively working on privacy protection and Liability protection. As a supporting hand for these global issues to secure data transfer, we propose a method to encrypt and decrypt the messages instantly by spanning trees of a graph with labelled tree sequences.

86 Falling between the gaps, again, and again: the lack of coordination between health care and the child welfare system

About 7% of youth in Ontario will have child welfare involvement at some point in their life. (Fallon, 2011) Up to 60% of children will meet criteria for a mental health diagnosis, and upon transition out of care 30% will have unaddressed health care needs. Following coroner recommendations from inquests into the deaths of Katelynn Sampson and Jeffrey Baldwin, last year another twelve youth died while in the care of the child welfare system. The 2018 coroner’s report again concluded there was lack of information sharing between societies and healthcare providers. (Cromarty, 2018) It has been established that social determinants of health contribute to the unaddressed health needs of these youth. In contrast, modifiable system level factors that can improve the collaboration and coordination between the healthcare system and Children’s Aid Societies has not been extensively analyzed. To use a policy analytic framework to outline the linkages between the healthcare system and the Children’s Aid Societies (CAS)s with the purpose of identifying factors that increase coordination, collaboration and information sharing within the child welfare system, and between the child welfare system and the healthcare system in Ontario. This paper will explore policy developments and choices that influence the information sharing structures between the child welfare and health care system using the policy analysis “3-i” conceptual framework – an analysis of the role of interests, ideas, and institutions. Interests refers to agendas of societal groups, civil servants, researchers etc. Ideas refers to knowledge and beliefs including research. Institutions refers to formal and informal rules (legislation) and organizational factors. Although some of the issues presented in this paper intersect with those of Indigenous child wellbeing societies, the health needs for this overrepresented population in the child welfare system necessitates a distinct analysis, and are not included in this paper. Institutions: Children are admitted to one of 49 CASs in Ontario. On admission or transfer to any CAS, legislation requires physician physical examinations within 48 hours. In Ontario these are most often completed at walk-in-clinics without medical history. No mental health screening or plan for healthcare follow-up is mandated. The current legislation does not does not track child health outcomes and the current funding formula for CASs does not include healthcare. See Figure 1.Ideas: Despite access to healthcare children did not use healthcare if a need was not identified by their CAS worker, or if workers were not equipped with resources to navigate the healthcare system. (Stiffman, 2004) In Ontario, only 1/3 of children in the child welfare system who were self-harming or voiced suicidality were referred to a mental health professional by their worker. (Baiden, 2018) The gateway providers for healthcare for children in care are their CAS workers. Interests: The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) is one of the governing medical bodies with interest in providing the primary health care to children and youth in care. A joint position statement by the CPS and family physicians could set the standard of medical care for children in the welfare system. The Ontario Association of CASs (OACAS) has the potential to systematically report upon performance indicators and outcomes without attributing results to specific CASs thereby providing a form of liability protection. Adverse childhood events and social determinants of health contribute to the health of children in the child welfare system. However, this analysis has identified modifiable system level factors that need to be targeted or else health advocacy initiatives will not have their expected impact. Importantly, we have identified child health workers as the gateway providers for the health of children in care, implying that future advocacy initiatives should include workers as key collaborators.