Alphecca: Litigation Philosophy 101

February 18, 2005

Litigation Philosophy 101

See, here's how I feel about Congress passing and President Bush signing the class-action tort reform bill: There are legitimate suits out there deserving high compensation but because of the stupendous abuse and greed of trial lawyers (and their clients) this legislation has become necessary. The professional victims society and their trial lawyers and their frivolous lawsuits are the direct cause of the bill signed today:

President Bush on Friday signed a bill that he says will curtail multimillion-dollar class action lawsuits against companies and help end "the lawsuit culture in our country."
[...]
Under the legislation Bush signed, class-action suits seeking $5 million or more would be heard in state court only if the primary defendant and more than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state. But if fewer than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state as the primary defendant, and more than $5 million is at stake, the case would go to federal court.

So now I can ask: If someone falls in the forest and there're no local jurists around to hear their bleat, do they still have a case?

Posted by Jeff Soyer at February 18, 2005 03:18 PM

Comments

The problem with a lot of these lawsuits-and I'll lump things like class action suits and medical malpractice suits together here-is not so much the compensatory awards, but the punitive damage awards.

Compensation is actual payment for damages caused, and generall there are defined, objective standards for determining it-lost wages, cost of medical care, etc. It's the punitive damages that have no objective formula, and those are the ones that get silly. Juries figure "Acme, Inc. is a big company, they can pay big money," and the award goes into the stratosphere. It also works that way with medical malpractice-they insurance company is going to pay for it, so the award goes way up there.

It's the punitive awards that need limits. But the trial lawyers groups have successfully defined any attempt to limit those as instead limiting the ability to sue at all.

Posted by: Heartless Libertarian at February 19, 2005 09:40 AM

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February 18, 2005

Litigation Philosophy 101

By Golly, you're reading an archived post. Click Here to head to the main page and read current stuff...

Check it out:

My group sci-fi blog novel:

Colony: Alchibah