Protecting the Public: Legal Issues in Injury Prevention.

Tom Christoffel and Stephen P. Teret Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. 222 pp., $39.95.

Reviewed by Edward Ricci

Tom Christoffel and Stephen Teret's recent book is a breath of fresh air. It is at once scholarly, easy to read, and devoid of polemic. Christoffel, a professor at the University of Illinois's School of Public Health, and Teret, director of The Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention Center, have written a book that deserves a place in the libraries of attorneys who represent injured victims. But it should not just sit on the shelf; it should be read.

The authors thoroughly review the validity of injury prevention laws, the role of civil tort litigation in reducing injury, and the difficulties in objectively measuring whether statutory and common law injury prevention laws really work.

The book offers much more than the usual review of atypical anecdotal cases that are often used to shape histrionic arguments on both sides of the issue. ATLA attorneys will find a section entitled "Private Litigation" especially informative. This is where the book specifically deals with tort actions--the cases most often prosecuted by ATLA members on behalf of injured victims.

Because the authors do not earn their livings through contingent fees in personal injury cases, they are free of the biases personal injury attorneys can have regarding injury prevention issues. Yet, even without these biases, the authors note that manufacturers have hampered injury prevention efforts.

In reviewing the history of tort law as a social tool to protect the public, they note that the debate has been largely "tempered by political considerations. ... The major corporations, often multinational in scope, are sophisticated and well funded, making them extremely effective at lobbying legislators and regulators. As a result, available technology often has not been utilized, and progress toward product safety has been slow."

The authors go on to note that to the judiciary, which has been insulated from political lobbying pressure (at least until recently), civil lawsuits have "become a powerful force for social change."

The history of federal and state regulatory development as an instrument to protect the public is presented in a concise and balanced format. Medical negligence and products liability actions are reviewed in a historical and social context, first, as a means of compensating victims and, second, as a way of changing the behavior of wrongdoers to make society a safer place to live and work.

Although the book is written for nonlawyers who are serious about understanding the role of law in injury prevention, personal injury attorneys will find it enlightening, too. And it should be mandatory reading for state and federal legislators.