Frustration With American Civil Litigation

 I’ve been involved in the American civil litigation industry for 40 years and cannot fathom how our population continues to leverage lawsuits as if it were a lottery. Our citizens have morphed from a  “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mindset to a belief that the world owes compensation for every unfortunate event. Nobody seems to appreciate how that adversely affects our economy. 

Let me explain a simple reality: if you are injured, more often or not it is human error, not a defect in an inanimate object. A great deal of the time it is your own damn fault. Yet millions of people seek to blame others for their own inanity, clumsiness, idiocy, alcohol consumption, or just plain bad luck. What happened to personal responsibility! I know, a rhetorical question.

Every time somebody plays the lawsuit lottery, we all pay the price..whether it be increased prices for goods and services, fewer options at Home Depot, higher insurance rates, higher medical costs, higher prices to rent vehicles or boats, or less personal responsibility. 

Sorry, but YOU have a duty to watch where you step, drive safely, climb a ladder responsibly, drink in moderation, chose your friends carefully, refrain from dropping your hairdryer in the bathtub, and keep your hands and feet from under the mower. Just stop suing every person or company that causes some petty offense or minor injury. 

You might win the lawsuit lottery, but the rest of us pay the price.