> The cost of taking someone to court far exceeds the likely result if you win the case This depends a lot on the legal system. For example, German's labor l

> The cost of taking someone to court far exceeds the likely result if you win the case This depends a lot on the legal system. For example, German's labor laws and related procedures differ from "regular" German law in many little ways to prevent the employer from making lawsuits against them impossible (since they're typically the much more powerful side of the dispute). Examples: - We have relatively employee-friendly laws to begin with. - There's no requirement for attorney representation in the lowest labor court. - The lower labor courts are quite lenient when it comes to formal requirements for paperwork (so you _really_ don't need a lawyer to file your lawsuit) - There are a bunch of safe guards to prevent the employer from driving up costs for the event that you lose. We usually have a weak "loser pays" system, but in the lowest tier the only costs are court fees and certain travel costs of the opposite party if you lose. On the other hand German law doesn't know punitive damages, which makes such lawsuits less risky for the employer side as well.