4 ms·

No not really, once you study the legal system of other advanced countries you will realize the US system is completely insane. The verdicts are wild, and we us

No not really, once you study the legal system of other advanced countries you will realize the US system is completely insane. The verdicts are wild, and we use juries for complex civil litigation. A bunch of regular Joes are supposed to understand torts and then even calculate damages! The result is trial lawyers succeed by playing on emotion, class, race, playing a character, etc., and a bunch of bored confused Joes and Janes sees an injured person and thinks "Okay, this sucks, give them $50 million."

wyldfire 9y ago
I don't know the solution but I would be super hesitant to take jury trials away (even for civil suits like described here).
- b34r 9y ago
  For civil suits I absolutely would. It's a waste of people's time.
everybodyknows 9y ago
This accounts for trial lawyers reputed aversion to engineers during jury selection: not easily manipulated by emotional appeals, too likely to think about where that $50 million came from and will go to. I've been on the voter rolls for 35 years, and not once called in.
- mikestew 9y ago
  I've been on the voter rolls for 35 years, and not once called in. That's luck of the draw, not anyone's aversion to having engineers on a jury.
wahern 9y ago
There are several recent studies that have attempted to quantify the costs. I don't have the time to locate and paste them here, but the TL;DR is that 1) yes, common law countries have much higher litigation costs; 2) the U.S. is the highest of all; but 3) while significant the differences are nowhere near enough to explain the enormous differences in infrastructure costs. As for direct liability costs, I can't remember if I've read any recent studies of those. But I went to law school (I'm not an attorney, though) and several of my family members are tort lawyers, and I can tell you from everything I know and have learned that liability costs are overblown. The fact of the matter is that every society will force negligent businesses to internalize the costs of their negligence. Some countries (esp. common law countries) emphasize the ability of individuals to seek compensation for actual damages. Other countries emphasize prevention and enforce a much stricter regulatory regime. Either way the costs can be considerable, but in any event the U.S. doesn't stand out among developed countries AFAIK. I just watched the Wizard of Oz this past weekend and in one of the opening scenes Miss Gulch, who was bitten by Toto, threatens to sue Dorothy's Aunt & Uncle for everything they have, taking away their farm. Point being, Americans have always had a somewhat irrational fear of litigation. It's a cultural thing. That same fear existed back in a time when building big infrastructure projects was cheap.

wyldfire 9y ago

I don't know the solution but I would be super hesitant to take jury trials away (even for civil suits like described here).

b34r 9y ago
For civil suits I absolutely would. It's a waste of people's time.

everybodyknows 9y ago

This accounts for trial lawyers reputed aversion to engineers during jury selection: not easily manipulated by emotional appeals, too likely to think about where that $50 million came from and will go to. I've been on the voter rolls for 35 years, and not once called in.

mikestew 9y ago
I've been on the voter rolls for 35 years, and not once called in. That's luck of the draw, not anyone's aversion to having engineers on a jury.

wahern 9y ago

There are several recent studies that have attempted to quantify the costs. I don't have the time to locate and paste them here, but the TL;DR is that 1) yes, common law countries have much higher litigation costs; 2) the U.S. is the highest of all; but 3) while significant the differences are nowhere near enough to explain the enormous differences in infrastructure costs. As for direct liability costs, I can't remember if I've read any recent studies of those. But I went to law school (I'm not an attorney, though) and several of my family members are tort lawyers, and I can tell you from everything I know and have learned that liability costs are overblown. The fact of the matter is that every society will force negligent businesses to internalize the costs of their negligence. Some countries (esp. common law countries) emphasize the ability of individuals to seek compensation for actual damages. Other countries emphasize prevention and enforce a much stricter regulatory regime. Either way the costs can be considerable, but in any event the U.S. doesn't stand out among developed countries AFAIK. I just watched the Wizard of Oz this past weekend and in one of the opening scenes Miss Gulch, who was bitten by Toto, threatens to sue Dorothy's Aunt & Uncle for everything they have, taking away their farm. Point being, Americans have always had a somewhat irrational fear of litigation. It's a cultural thing. That same fear existed back in a time when building big infrastructure projects was cheap.