Litigiousness
The litigiousness of today's society annoys the heck out of me. I'd be willing to bet that the idea of being sued comes up every single day for me. I don't mean to say that I actually get sued, I just mean that a friend might tell me that something I just did could bring on a lawsuit. I feel that every step I take could, in theory, cause me to be sued.
For a more real example, I can look at my condo. I'm on the board of my condo association, and we have a bunch of renovations/construction we have to do. Now, as it turns out, the hardest thing to do is to find somebody willing to work on our place. Most people can't, or won't, get the insurance necessary to work on condos. I can't confirm that this is true, but I heard that 50% of condos sue after a construction job is done!
Well, I'm sure I could go on for a while on this rant, but since I'm not a big fan of typing a lot, I'll get to my proposal for a solution. It's quite simple, I think, although I see it occurring in two steps. The first step is for us (in my case, the State of California) to bring up legislation that would punish those who would bring forward frivolous lawsuits. A friend of mine suggested that maybe you could be allowed one such lawsuit every five years (so as not to discourage a legitimate claim). The punishment could be, for example, that the person would have to pay all legal fees of the defendant plus damages for time and suffering. In addition, you would make that plaintiff's lawyer also financially responsible for it.
But the real progress comes with the next step... Faced with this impending legislation, the Bar Association should self-regulate its members. It would be much better for them to do it themselves, rather than let some third party decide which is frivolous and which is not. The Bar Association could suspend a lawyer's license if he/she does what is considered unethical (e.g. door-to-door solicitation for lawsuits).
For a more real example, I can look at my condo. I'm on the board of my condo association, and we have a bunch of renovations/construction we have to do. Now, as it turns out, the hardest thing to do is to find somebody willing to work on our place. Most people can't, or won't, get the insurance necessary to work on condos. I can't confirm that this is true, but I heard that 50% of condos sue after a construction job is done!
Well, I'm sure I could go on for a while on this rant, but since I'm not a big fan of typing a lot, I'll get to my proposal for a solution. It's quite simple, I think, although I see it occurring in two steps. The first step is for us (in my case, the State of California) to bring up legislation that would punish those who would bring forward frivolous lawsuits. A friend of mine suggested that maybe you could be allowed one such lawsuit every five years (so as not to discourage a legitimate claim). The punishment could be, for example, that the person would have to pay all legal fees of the defendant plus damages for time and suffering. In addition, you would make that plaintiff's lawyer also financially responsible for it.
But the real progress comes with the next step... Faced with this impending legislation, the Bar Association should self-regulate its members. It would be much better for them to do it themselves, rather than let some third party decide which is frivolous and which is not. The Bar Association could suspend a lawyer's license if he/she does what is considered unethical (e.g. door-to-door solicitation for lawsuits).
posted by Michael at 12:53 AM
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