LAW 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Vehicle Insurance
Document Summary
An alternative compensation scheme is a system that allows a person who has suffered an injury to receive compensation without bringing an action in tort. Two common examples apply to injuries suffered in the workplace (workers" compensation schemes) or in traffic accidents (no-fault automobile insurance schemes). There are two main advantages to alternative compensation schemes. First, the tort system provides compensation only to those people who are injured as a result of torts. An alternative compensation scheme, in contrast, can provide relief in some such cases because it is not premised upon wrongdoing. (significantly, however, no alternative compensation scheme provides redress for every injury howsoever caused. A second advantage to an alternative compensation scheme is that even if an injury was caused by a tort, it may be difficult or expensive to prove that cause of action. Once again, such proof is unnecessary under an alternative compensation scheme.