> Ianal, but isn't there some system in place to prevent really ridiculous cases going to court? E.g. grand juries or something? Grand juries are "court", albe

> Ianal, but isn't there some system in place to prevent really ridiculous cases going to court? E.g. grand juries or something? Grand juries are "court", albeit with a lesser burden of proof, and they don't apply to civil cases anyway. There's a preliminary stage, where each party moves for summary judgement in their favor, but even that can get involved. (Google is involved in an age-discrimination lawsuit where the parties are fighting over whether they even go to trial. That decision went to the CA Supreme Court, took years, and cost lots of money. Yes, it's an outlier but....) The preliminary stage tends to weed out the truly absurd but remember you're only hearing one side here.