Welcome to Sue City, U.S.A.
Litigation has become our national pastime. Look at programs like Judge Judy, Court TV, and the People's Court. They capitalize on the public's fury at a legal system apparently run amok--a "system" characterized by frivolous lawsuits, manipulative lawyers, rapacious clients, and outrageous legal fees (prompting one wag to note, "One rarely sees a fat client or a thin lawyer").
The Bush administration is committed to tort reform. It has proposed capping jury "pain and suffering" awards in medical malpractice suits at $250,000, limiting punitive damages and lawyers' contingency fees. Democrats oppose these proposals, on the grounds that no restrictions should be placed on any injured American's right to sue. We can all agree that one injured medical patient is one too many. But one falsely accused doctor is one too many, as well. Somehow, we must restore a sense of responsibility, and of proportion.
To do so, we must create a new system of medical justice. Clearly, we want to distinguish between good care and bad care, but juries have limited appreciation of the scientific issues and are not much helped by expert witnesses endlessly contradicting each other. We could, instead, rely on independent panels answerable to the court. We might also penalize those who bring frivolous lawsuits, have damages set by judges rather than by juries, and make the losing party pay the legal expenses of the winner.
Reforms will not come easily, given that trial lawyers have become the most powerful special interest group in American politics, bankrolling politicians, especially Democrats. But tort litigation is costing us all. The current estimate is $200 billion a year, and rising. As author John Naisbitt said in Megatrends, "Lawyers are like beavers. They get in the mainstream and dam it up."
This is one dam we must dynamite--now.
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