Lawsuits, Lawsuits Everywhere (And No One Willing to Be the Plaintiff)

One of the major problems with law school is seeing lawsuits EVERYWHERE.  Everywhere you turn is another tort, and not of the delicious variety.  Watching people text and cross major intersections is cringe-inducing.  (Contributory/Comparative Negligence!)  Puddles on the floors of restaurants make me downright ill.  (It's a slip and fall waiting to happen!)  Day-to-day life is fraught with future legal responsibilities, which is why it's important to be careful and take care of your fellow man.  Because if you don't your fellow man could sue.

And in many cases, that fellow man does sue.  But how many times do people try to turn frivolity into a lawsuit?  Something tells me its more often than not, though I don't really have statisitics.  On the other hand, how many times do we, as outsiders, perceive something as frivolous litigation, when in reality it's truly important.  For instance, in the McDonald's coffee case, which most people have laughed at a time or two, the plaintiff was an 80 year old woman who had severe third-degree burns in her pelvic region because she was unable to remove her pants in seven seconds or less.  No cup of coffee should do that to a person so fast.  She was rightly awarded a half million dollars.

And if there are so many frivolous cases perceived as important and vice versa, how many cases never materialize at all because the prospective plaintiff does not want to go through the hassle of litigation or sees the case as frivolous herself?  Especially in situations of medical malpractice or insurance litigation, a plaintiff may see herself as too small to fight the red-tape system, or that "it wasn't so bad, after all."  But people, hospitals, corporations, and insurance companies owe their neighbors, clients, and patients a duty of care.  By not confronting the other side, prospective plaintiffs are allowing prospective defendants to set a lower bar when it comes to their duty of care.  A hospital that does not get confronted about its bad behavior when it comes to delineating post-op care is not going to provide good post-op care to the next patient either.

Am I saying that we should all be suing each other non-stop in order to make the world a better place?  No.  Of course not.  But I am saying that if you have a problem, you have the duty to at least stand up and say "enough."  Even if you aren't willing to be a plaintiff.