FIFTY YEARS LATER: THE LEGACY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

This paper assesses the legacy of the Civil Rights Act over the past 50 years, reviewing its history, scope, and impact on wage, employment, and segregation outcomes of the Act's five protected classes. In addition to improving outcomes for protected classes, the Act launched a period of expanded civil rights legislation and established a framework that allows expansion of coverage through judicial interpretation without requiring passage of new laws. Applications include prohibiting sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination and protection against color discrimination separately from race discrimination, which may be increasingly salient with increased immigration and with a multirace population.     

Tort Liability Litigation Costs for Commercial Claims

This article analyzes tort liability litigation costs usingthe Texas Department of Insurance Commercial Liability InsuranceClosed Claim database for the years 1988–2004. Insurercosts to defend claims in which a suit was filed average $35,000per claim in 2004$, which corresponds to a share of 0.18 oftotal expenditures. Claims with higher stakes and complexitylead to greater reliance on outside counsel and less relianceon in-house counsel. Total transactions costs for each dollarreceived by claimants average $0.75 for all claims and $0.83for claims in which the claimant retained an attorney and asuit was filed.