Straight talk about frivolous lawsuits.Lawyer jokes  This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.You can assist by [ editing it] now. and uninformed statements bashing the civil justice system have dogged plaintiff attorneys through many a golf game, PTA PTA or parent-teacher association: see parent education. meeting, or dinner party. When a question about civil justice rears its head, you need to respond with the facts. Q: I recently read about a judge in Washington, D.C., suing a dry cleaner for $65 million over a lost pair of pants In mathematics, a pair of pants is a simple two-dimensional surface resembling a pair of pants. In hyperbolic geometry, pairs of pants are sewn together, leg to leg, or leg to waist, to create Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus. . Doesn't that just prove the justice system is broken? A: The $65 million pants case was ridiculous--a terrible intimidation of a small-business owner over a minor matter. The judge ought to be investigated and, if the facts are true, disciplined by the D.C. Bar. If he were a member of AAJ--he's not, thankfully--he'd be subject to our code of conduct, which says that as attorneys, we will not "prosecute or counsel any action, or assert any claim or defense, which is false, frivolous Of minimal importance; legally worthless. A frivolous suit is one without any legal merit. In some cases, such an action might be brought in bad faith for the purpose of harrassing the defendant. , or wholly insubstantial." But the case is not representative of most cases. In fact, a 2006 survey by the Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) was created by Congress in 1967 (28 U.S.C.A. § 620) to enhance the growth of Judicial Administration in federal courts. It has become the judicial branch's agency for planning and policy research, systems development, and continuing education for the research and education agency of the federal court system--shows most federal judges do not view "frivolous lawsuits" as a problem: 70 percent of the 278 federal judges who responded declared that groundless litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. is either a "small problem"' or a "very small problem," and 15 percent said it was no problem at all. A business survey conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers, a rabid critic of the civil justice system, showed lawsuits ranking last among the corporate world's 10 greatest concerns. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , so-called tort reformers are proclaiming a crisis that doesn't exist. By attacking the courts, they are in essence attacking the millions of Americans who seek justice--parents who lost a child as the result of a defective product, a veteran who lost a leg because of an operation that went tragically wrong, a retiree who faithfully consumed medication that the drugmaker knew to be deadly. These critics are part of the cynical effort by large corporate interests that want to destroy our civil justice system. |
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