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The day after a statute of limitations was announced for aircraft manufacturers, Cessna said it would once again build piston airplanes. Since that anouncement, they have built new factories, employed hundreds, and you can go to your local airport today and buy a brand new Cessna.
Tort reform works.
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First, it's not a statute of limitations, it's a statute of REPOSE. Big difference.
Second, do you know what the Statute of Repose provided? It said that after 18 years had passed, you could no longer bring a cause of action for products liability against an aircraft manufacturer based on defects in DESIGN.
Not manufacturing defects, DESIGN defects. The theory was that if they hadn't manifested themselves in the prior 18 years, they couldn't be the cause of an accident.
The reason why Cessna quit making GA aircraft was partially due to products liability suits, but mostly due to the fact that the margins on ONE Citation were higher than a hundred 152's. This company had a strategic choice about where to deploy capital, and correctly saw the dawn of a new era of personal jet aviation.
Piper Aircraft went BK becuase they didn't have alternative revenue streams. They got in a lot of trouble over in-flight breakup of the Malibu and that was it. You buy a new Archer today, it's the same type certificate, but you're buying it from "New Piper Aircraft."
You go to your local Cessna dealer today, you buy a warmed-over spam can with a new paint job and the same Lycoming design that's been flying with the airplane since the 70's.
You buy a Cirrus SR-20 today, which represents a genuine innovation in the marketplace, and what's the impact of Statute of Repose? Nothing. The a/c wasn't around 18 years ago.
Tort reform? How about an end to tort-feasor behavior? How about people giving a **** about their fellow human beings sufficient to avoid negligent behavior, and then having the integrity not to sue if stuff goes wrong?
Not a lawyer problem. A human behavior problem.