Frivolous lawsuits still costing us too much - ???

by Court Koenning, Austin Business Journal, 05/28/2010
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/05/31/editorial1.html

[HOT: This article, designed to inflame the unaware reader, is typical of what we see from Tort Reformers. It uses shallow and misleading arguments and examples to paint a picture of deadbeats who file frivolous lawsuits rather than accept personal responsibility for their own actions. More comments at the end...]

It’s hard to believe that the now-infamous “hot coffee” lawsuit against McDonald’s happened 16 years ago. Yet that case’s multimillion-dollar settlement apparently left a lasting impression — and planted an idea — with a New York woman now suing Starbucks over a cup of hot tea that allegedly caused her “great physical pain and mental anguish.”

This is the type of lawsuit that raises real concerns about the impact of a sue-happy society. Clearly, far too many engage in the blame game and are ready and willing to play the lawsuit lottery and burden our courts with questionable cases, no matter the consequences to the rest of us.

The media — and the courts — are full of examples of “blame game” lawsuits:

1.  Three teenagers tried to sue a well-known fast-food chain after they gained weight from eating there nearly everyday. They claimed not to have known that a diet almost solely of fat-laden hamburgers and French fries would cause them to pack on the pounds.

2. An admitted alcoholic went on a two-day bender at a resort and spa. While intoxicated, he fell 100 feet over a stairway then sued the hotel for serving an addict and causing his injuries.

3.  A Connecticut woman sued a cosmetics company, alleging that the company ruined her social life when she accidentally dyed her hair brunette with one of its products. The woman said she can never return to her natural blonde hue, a shock that left her so traumatized she needed antidepressants and had to stay home and wear hats most of the time.

These actual lawsuits, and hundreds of others like them, hit all of us in our pocketbooks. It costs money to defend a lawsuit – even ones without merit – and businesses must incorporate their legal costs into the prices of products and services consumers buy. Taxpayers also are paying for the court time eaten up by these cases. A recent study shows the U.S. tort system cost $254.7 billion in 2008, which translates to $838 for every man, woman and child in our country.

[The $254.7B is for all torts, commercial and personal, and in no way represents frivolous lawsuits as implied. The study only looks at the costs and makes no attempt to look at the benefits of the tort system. It also shows that the ratio of tort costs to GDP has been trending downward for the last five consecutive years.]

The fact that these types of cases persist decade after decade tells us that our society has abandoned all sense of personal responsibility and replaced it with a warped sense of entitlement.

We need to reacquaint ourselves with personal responsibility and stop playing the blame game. We need to realize that every dilemma or personal disappointment is not fodder for a lawsuit and does not warrant a treasure trove of cash.

Court Koenning is president of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Houston.

HOT COMMENTS:

Mr. Koenning conveniently fails to say that 95% of personal injury law suits are settled without trial and 90% of those that go to trial lose. He ignores the fact that our legal system helps ensure that frivolous suits are dismissed early in the process but instead argues that it’s a huge problem and burden on taxpayers. His real goal, however, is to protect the interests of big corporations and shield them from accountability.

Rather than fix the cause of lawsuits – gross negligence and abuse that makes victims of ordinary citizens – Koenning would rather block your access to the court system, a Constitutional right. One way to do that is with forced arbitration. Another is to ban class actions. That’s curious, because class action lawsuits are more efficient than separate suits, reduce overall litigation costs, let victims share the risks of filing a suit, and provide a greater deterrent to abusive behavior.

Tort Reformers like Koenning refer to trial lawyers as “greedy” because of the high fees they may charge when taking cases on a contingency basis. Those fees, however, represent the high cost and risk of bringing a suit to trial against corporations with superior legal and financial resources – corporations who use their clout to drag out the legal process and “wear down” opponents. It would seem that this sort of corporate behavior contributes more to the overall cost of litigation than any frivolous lawsuits. But of course, Koenning doesn’t dare go there.