Essay on "Federal Tort Claims Act"

Essay 4 pages (1421 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The most important statement from FTCA is that the particular laws of every state must apply while enacting the legislation. This means whether any similar situation, or similar damage occur to individuals from different states, the compensation laws would be different for them. It is obvious that the person who is claiming the tort compensation should prove it against the government, no fake suits are allowed in any case and the government is liable to provide every such explanation by which it can waives itself from the claim. Some claims are obvious and can be resolved instantly, while some difficult cases like those relating to security problems take enough time. The security concerns are the most sensitive ones in this regard. If the individual is mis-treated by law enforcement agencies, he can sue against them for personal injuries and harm. In such cases, the government employee who foresees all such situation would be considered responsible and under trial and he would individually compensate the claiming party. But the law enforcement suffered a lot by this act as the employees became lenient while dealing with the security purposes and did not perform efficiently and effectively in order to avoid any claim against them. To resolve this issue, another act was passed by the Congress in 1988, by which, not the individual employees but the state government itself would become the claimed party, in order to safeguard the rights of its employees, and would pay any compensation if liable. However, if the employee violates any rule of the constitution, the remedy is to be paid by the employee himself (Wright 1957).

Other exceptions include intentional and personal behavior of government employees, by which any employee who makes physical or financial damage to an individual for personal reasons must directly be claimed and the suit will not fall under FTCA. Also, the injured employees of the government cannot file a suit against U.S. under FTCA. Again, the most important cases are those that are related to risks of crime, justice and security. There can be too many different situations in these cases and hence, the one and the same law could not be applied wholly and truly upon every situation. There is always some discretion in every circumstance and in such cases; the Supreme Court will take the ultimate decision. It imposes some limitations and restrictions upon the "choice" of actions taken by the employee in a discrete situation, thus not allowing the situation to dis-regard the liability of tort. Also, the Supreme Court is responsible to safe guard the rules and policies enacted by the Congress and the Government, so that all the functions are performed accurately and there would be no question about the accountability of liability of tort (Matthews 2012).

Hence on the whole, the enactment of FTCA is a good attempt to provide civilians with an excellent trust over their government, that if they are subjected to any mis-treatement by respective authorities, they can be provided a tort compensation for that. Thus the civilians are provided no less than equal rights as to the state itself, which is quite a good step towards the eradication of sovereign immunity and the implementation of equality. The U.S. government has always been as friendly and lenient to its citizens as possible and such examples do not account in most parts of the world. Although, many say that FTCA has still a long way to go, a good first step always lead towards a better ending.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cecchine, G. (2004). Triage for civil support: Using military medical assets to respond to terrorist attacks. Santa Monica, CA: National Defense Research Institute and RAND Health.

Cohen, H and Burrows, V. (December 11, 2007). Federal Tort Claims Act. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved on 24/7/2012 from:

http://www.hhs.gov/hhsmanuals/logisticsmanual/Appendix%20R_CRS%20Report%20to%20Congress,%20Federal%20Tort%20Claims%20Act,%20Order%20Code%2095-717.pdf

Matthews, D.E. Federal Tort Claims Act - The proper scope of the discretionary function exception. The American University Law Review, Volume 6. Retrieved on 24/7/2012 from: www.wcl.american.edu/journal/lawrev/06/matthews.pdf

Niles, M.C. (January 01, 2002). "Nothing But Mischief': The Federal Tort Claims Act and the Scope of Discretionary Immunity. Administrative Law Review, 54, 4, 1275.

Wright, W.B. (1957). The Federal Tort Claims Act. New York: Central Book Co. READ MORE

How to Reference "Federal Tort Claims Act" Essay in a Bibliography

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