Watching television the other day, I saw an interesting commercial. A man sitting behind a desk asked me if I was getting the money I deserved. I couldn't imagine why I wasn't, but I kept watching. He then proceeded to ask me if I've been injured in an accident recently and informed me that if I had been I should call a number to have a lawyer get my money. I had been injured in an accident playing sports recently, in which I tore my ACL, but I wasn't about to sue Amherst College.
Lawsuits exist in order to provide victims of injustice legal compensation. Yet when lawsuits have become so commonplace that they are advertised on television just like restaurants, toys and cars, a problem exists. Restaurants, toys and cars are part of everyday life, so lawsuits being advertised through the same medium would imply that they too have become a part of everyday life. This normalized intrusion bothers me; I don't enjoy the prospect of worrying about whether or not I will be sued every time I step outside the door in the morning.
In today's society, it is possible to sue someone for nearly anything. Spill coffee on yourself, sue Starbucks. Overweight, sue McDonalds. Slip on some ice, sue your town. Step on your shoelaces, sue the shoe company. Just two years ago, The Pittsburgh Tribune reported that a couple sued Wal-Mart for damages in excess of $30,000 because the plastic bag containing their groceries broke open causing injuries such as broken toenails and a possible foot fracture. They claim the store "failed to properly instruct and train its employees to correctly bag products, negligently provided a defective bag, recklessly overpacked the bag by placing in it too many heavy items, failed to double- or triple-bag the purchases and put [the plaintiff] in a 'position of peril.'" Maybe Wal-Mart should add "Caution: contains perilous groceries" as a warning on all of their bags.
These constant lawsuits prevent random acts of kindness. For instance, if a trained medical professional were to see someone hurt in the street, it would be likely that he would assist the person, even if he was not currently working. But there was a time where these medical professionals began to fear getting sued for helping people to such an extent that they began to pass by victims in the street and do nothing because they felt it wasn't worth the risk. And who could blame them? Would you want to help someone if the reward for your kindness was a lawsuit? Until "Good Samaritan Laws" were passed to protect these medical professionals, lawsuits provided a strong incentive for medical professionals to avoid helping others.
Lawsuits are also very detrimental to hospital care. Hospitals lose thousands of dollars to lawsuits every year, often over very small issues. In 2005, Massachusetts General Hospital lost $24 million to a lawsuit over a complication during an extremely complex pregnancy in which the baby's head became tipped so that it could not fit through the mother's pelvis, causing the baby to suffer injuries during delivery. Complicated pregnancies happen, and they don't always work out, that's just part of life. Yet as a result of the lawsuit Mass. General has lost $24 million in funds that could help patients in need of care. Although liability insurance helps cover some of these loses, the increasing cost of liability insurance due to increased malpractice suits drains hospital funds as well. Some hospitals even have to turn patients away who do not have insurance because they cannot afford to pay the patient's hospital bill if the patient cannot. Inadequate care is a major problem and although lawsuits are not the only factor involved, they are an important one. I'm sure if the hospital wasn't losing $24 million every time someone had a complex delivery the hospital could provide better care for those in need.
Ultimately, the problem with these lawsuits is that they create injustice rather than compensating for injustice. They are undermining and abusing the purpose for which lawsuits were created in the first place. Lawsuits are not supposed to be a get rich quick scheme or a major industry. Lawsuits have become the new form of robbery, a form of robbery supported by the same system designed to prevent it, our legal system. If that isn't a flawed system I don't know what is.
Now how could one go about rectifying this problem of lawsuits being used to suck money from people and organizations instead of for their intended purpose? Firstly, court decisions need to be made. The biggest reason that these lawsuits continue to happen is because they work. If you burn yourself with a cup of coffee because Starbucks thought you would be intelligent enough to realize the coffee was hot and that spilling it on yourself was a bad idea and you then proceed to sue Starbucks, our courts might decide that you deserve a large sum of money. However, if courts were to prevent such cases from being successful, lawyers would not have such a strong incentive to bring so many of these kinds of cases to court. Secondly, if more laws were passed to protect people and other institutions that help people, such as hospitals from lawsuits, then these individuals and institutions could serve society more effectively.
Lawsuits are a critical part of our legal system. They help bring some legal compensation to those who have been treated unjustly. But we must ensure that lawsuits are used to uphold the law, instead of becoming the worst form of robbery in the United States.
Barbieri can be contacted at jbarbieri09@amherst.edu