I’ve got some thoughts on the subject at Point of Law.
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In addition to the factors that you mentioned, another component of the decrease in carpal tunnel cases has been the use of EMG studies to determine the degree of injury. EMG studies give an objective assessment of the nerve impingement. This helps separate the real from the malingering. By making it a cut and dry condition, the insurance pays when there is a problem and does not when there isn’t. There is no need for attorneys or their added expenses. As it is also an easily fixed problem and can be quantitatively followed, people can not ride the disability system indefinitely. I guess in short, there isn’t money in it anymore for attorneys!
This may be a case of 50-50 hindsight. Now it seems obvious that there are no serious, life-altering risks from using a mouse, but was this clear in 1993? There was probably not enough data at the time.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in about 2035, when the first Nintendo players start hitting retirement age. Will we see an uptick in arthritis from hours spent frantically mashing the “A” button? It’s not out of the realm of possibility. I kind of doubt it will make any real impact.
(For my sake, I hope not!)
iNonymous, there’s already a diagnosis called “Nintendo Thumb.”
Walter’s point probably has merit. Now if we could just do something about the “bulging disc” causation fraud underlying such a high number of car accident lawsuits, we’d be getting somewhere.
The case of Toyota v. Williams 534 U.S. 184 (2002)http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-1089.ZO.html did a lot to stem the tide of carpal tunnel ADA lawsuits.
Product liability lawsuits decreased for two reasons. The keyboard lawsuits tended to be losers, and the companies making these products designed ergonometrically better features.