Wrongful Death & Grief

One of my first posts had to do with Andrew McClurg’s terrific piece Dead Sorrow: A Story About Loss and a New Theory of Wrongful Death Damages, 85 B.U.L.Rev. 1 (2005).  As I noted there, I assigned it to my evening section and we finally got to that section of the course last night.

My students can correct me if I’m wrong via the comments field, but I thought it was a fascinating discussion, well worth the time.  We had comments ranging from fairly technical discussion of the proposal to rather personal stories of grief and remembrance, and while I might not want that mix every night, it seemed to work.

At three-fourths of the way through the school year (it’s true, you can look it up), and finishing up most of our discussion on damages, it was a useful time to remind people what it is we’re talking about — harms to people.  The combination of a wrenching personal narrative with a modest suggestion for a change in the law is effective and highly readable.

I would encourage Torts profs to consider assigning the article, or excerpts of it, in future years, if you can fit it in.  It really did serve a useful purpose.