Trial Judge: Stop Suing over Every Little Thing

Modern American culture is way too quick to sue and waste years of everyone’s life slogging it out in the sluggish court system.  Sometimes even those who make their living from this system agree.

The trial judge in a recent case in West Virginia, on “what is essentially a boundary dispute” that eventually took at least a year and a half of litigation to resolve:

More on Texas’s New Loser-pays Law

A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised and pleased to learn that Texas had adopted a “loser pays” reform of their legal system—surprised because such a reform is basically good for everyone else but bad for lawyers, and I figured that lawyers would never let it happen.  In the comments on that entry, we discussed the pros and cons of different possible variations on loser-pays laws.

National Review (July 4th, page 10) now gives us some details about the particular law Texas has passed; it’s a modest change to the system, impeccably sensible: 

Loser-pays Can Win in America?

Today I read that under Governor Rick Perry, Texas has adopted a loser-pays system!

In America, if someone sues you, you pay for a lawyer.  Even if you ultimately win the lawsuit and aren’t held liable for any damages at all, you’ve still lost thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees (not to mention the time taken out of your life, which you can never get back).  A lot of the theory behind tort law revolves around making people “whole” for the wrongs they’ve suffered.  Who will make you whole? 

Of Cabbages and Kings

If you’re a fan of President Obama, you should probably just skip this one.