Critics argue the American civil justice system encourages excessive and wasteful litigation
Evidence
In recent years, the U.S. civil justice system has come under sustained attack. Consider the indictment: Americans have developed “a mad romance … with the civil litigation process.” However outrageous the claim, there is a litigant willing to press it and a court to hear it (see Box 7.1). And encouraging this propensity to litigate differences and file frivolous suits is the world’s largest legal profession. Not surprisingly, then, “our society has become the most litigious society in the world. No other nation is even close.” Further, “this massive, mushrooming litigation has caused horrendous ruptures and dislocations at a flabbergasting cost to the nation.” Litigants themselves bear some of the costs. With overloaded courts, justice is slower and more expensive than ever. The nation’s economy also suffers. “Like a plague of locusts, U.S. lawyers with their clients have descended upon America and are suing the country out of business.” — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1127
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the ‘litigious society’ critique as a claim to be empirically tested rather than assumed.
- XREF: connects to: Commentators dispute whether excessive litigation or underlitigation is America’s real civil justice problem — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1046; Americans rarely convert their disputes into lawsuits despite high civil filing rates — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1133; Opposing camps on litigation agree the civil justice system needs reform. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2334 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Opposing camps on litigation agree the civil justice system needs reform.
#expands(0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2334 - The U.S. civil justice system faces a sustained, decades-long political attack.
#qualifies(0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2291 - Corporate defendants frame litigation costs as waste to justify settling.
#expands(0.76) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2503 - Critics argue informal ADR proceedings disadvantage poor disputants lacking procedural safeguards
#responds-to(0.74) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1176