The 'Reshapement' of the False Negative Asymmetry in Toxic Tort Causation

William Mitchell Law Review, Vol. 37, page 1507, 2011

Rutgers School of Law-Newark Research Paper No. 093

75 Pages Posted: 30 Mar 2011 Last revised: 23 Oct 2012

Date Written: March 28, 2011

Abstract

Legal decision-making entails the possibility of error, and legal rules may preferentially create a higher risk of one type of error than another. In toxic tort causation disputes, much legal doctrine implicitly prefers to risk false negative errors -- incorrectly rejecting questionable causal claims that are actually true -- over false positive errors -- incorrectly accepting causal claims that are actually false. This article explains how legal doctrines create that asymmetry, explores possible reasons for the asymmetry, and describes how the Third Restatement of Torts offers courts an opportunity to correct the asymmetry without sacrificing the truth-seeking objective of adjudication.

Keywords: tort, toxic tort, third restatement of torts, causation, false negative, toxic substances, cancer, admissibility, expert testimony, Daubert

Suggested Citation

Gold, Steve C., The 'Reshapement' of the False Negative Asymmetry in Toxic Tort Causation (March 28, 2011). William Mitchell Law Review, Vol. 37, page 1507, 2011, Rutgers School of Law-Newark Research Paper No. 093, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1797826 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1797826

Steve C. Gold (Contact Author)

Rutgers School of Law-Newark ( email )

Newark, NJ
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
125
Abstract Views
1,259
Rank
407,063
PlumX Metrics