Frivolous Litigation
By Daryl L. Hunter

Frivolous litigation is bankrupting our society. It has become a lazy mans lotto ticket. Juries increasingly have kept raising the ceiling for punitive damage settlements. Each shocking new multi billion-dollar settlement is just a new benchmark for the nest big suit and the people of America are paying the bill

Health insurance never seemed like a bargain but litigation has increased their cost beyond the ability for many to pay for a reasonable policy. Employer's nation wide also feeling the pinch and are decreasing the coverage of the plans that they have been giving to their employees for years. We can thank gratuitous litigation inflicted upon the medical field for these increased costs to us.

Doctors are changing from high-risk specialties like OBGYN's to family practice because malpractice insurance has removed the incentive to practice certain important types of medicine. Many who would have gone into the medical field had second thoughts and have re-directed their goals. A sharp person can do anything, why pursue a career fraught with the threat of financially ruinous frivolous litigation.

There was a time that I was outraged as everyone about the price Americans paid for prescription drugs, until someone told me the reason. It's because Americans are the ones that sue the drug companies. The price of this litigation has to be paid by someone, it may as well be paid by the litigious society because "the non litigious" society doesn't deserve the extra burden of America's frivolous litigation cost incursion. Soon the pharmaceutical companies will figure out that it is better to just sell the tried and true drugs developed in the past as the risk of litigation removes the incentive for inventing new ones. The up side is, drugs would become cheaper the bad news is we would be stuck with only the drugs we now have.

When someone sues McDonalds $3 million for spilling hot coffee in their lap McDonalds is sure to past that litigation cost onto the consumer. Why do you think that 4 ounces of potato from McDonalds costs a dollar? Cigarettes are the most visible example of the cost of litigation being passed on to the end user.

Granted I found out during my wife's workman's comp situation with Albertsons Grocery Stores that sometimes a corporation needs a good financial reminder for why it is wise to be a good citizen. There is however a clear line between asking or providing what's fair over a legitimate grievance and ambulance chasing lawyers trying to make a name and fortune for themselves at the expense of a whole society.

In a civil case I am involved in I sent the following definition of prostituting to my opponents lawyer and he was outraged. I thought my lawyer should know of the correspondence and my lawyer calmly told me "we lawyers are prostitutes and the money is good."

Prostituting
tr.v. prosátiátutáed, prosátiátutáing, prosátiátutes
1. To offer (oneself or another) for sexual hire. 2. To sell (oneself or one's talent, for example) for an unworthy purpose.

Once when I was young I saw a car wreck I pulled over and watched a guy die without doing anything. I feared if I helped and did something wrong I would be sued. One mile from the hospital I figured I would leave it to the experts but by the time they got there 20 minutes later the guy was a dead. If not paralyzed into inaction by legal fear I may have done something to make him last until the ambulance got there. Thankfully there has been a law passed that protects people in such situations called the Good Samaritan law so we no longer have to fear that one. But this anecdote does illustrate a social cost to our litigious society.

My concern about frivolous litigation has changed to outrage at the American people for their shortsighted approach to problems we invite upon ourselves (our culture of lawsuits) and our idiotic reactions to them. We cheer lawyers that get 28 billion dollars from the evil cigarette manufactures. Now the lawyers are going to come after our pleasure food because they have a new benchmark to beat and a new villain in the crosshairs.

Tort reform has never been needed more as our society can't afford the price we are paying in cash, lost services, and an uncertain future.

Question: Why do they bury Lawyers 12 foot down instead of 6 feet?

Answer: Because deep down they are really good people.