International Comparisons of Litigation Costs: Europe, the United States and Canada

The Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform recently released International Comparisons of Litigation Costs: Europe, the United States and Canada.  From the description:

The purpose of this study is to compare liability costs – a phrase used here to describe the costs of claims, whether resolved through litigation or other claims resolution processes – as a fraction of GDP across Europe, the U.S. and Canada. General liability insurance sold to companies provides a basis for comparison because it covers similar types of liability costs in each country....

Key findings are as follows:

•  The U.S. has the highest liability costs as a percentage of GDP of the countries surveyed, with liability costs at 2.6 times the average level of the Eurozone economies (see Figure 1).

• U.S. liability costs are four times higher than those of the least costly European countries in our study – Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal.

• Although the U.S. has by far the most costly liability system, our analysis shows that liability costs in the U.K., Germany and Denmark have risen between 13% and 25% per year since 2008. 

 

- SBS