The cost of justice (part 1)

Is the cost of justice in the United States worth the price we pay? The United States invests more of its gross national product than any other country in resolving our disputes with one another. In my own personal experience, I handle products liability cases throughout North America, that is, in both the United States and Canada. The same products I represent are sold in both countries in comparable volumes, but there is almost never a lawsuit filed against those products in Canada, whereas I keep extremely busy defending the same products in the United States. Presumably, the same incidents occur in Canada as in the United States, but no one seems to bring a lawsuit there. Does anyone believe the Canadians feel they are receiving less justice than we are in the United States?

My favorite story comes from a dinner conversation with a Chinese law professor when I asked him how a personal injury claim would be handled in China. He did not even understand my question, so I posed a typical hypothetical case to him and asked him first how the medical bills would be paid to the injured worker? He responded that in China there were no medical bills because everyone had free health care (a topic worthy of a future blog). So I asked him about payment of lost wages, to which he pointed out that all employers in China continued a worker’s salary while he was sick or injured so he would never lose any income from an accident. Finally I asked him about “pain and suffering,” to which he replied with a deep smile that betrayed my cultural ignorance, “For pain and suffering we have acupuncture.”

So, are Americans better off than the citizens of every other country in the world because we sue each other every day for wage loss, medical bills, and pain and suffering? I suggest that this question would likely be answered very differently by a group of lawyers than by a group of their clients who have gone through the American legal system.

In my novel, The Litigators, the lawsuit, which is the focus of the book, is entirely typical of lawsuits filed every day in the United States, and the process in which my characters find themselves enmeshed is also highly typical. If you decide to read the book, I suggest you ask yourself this question all over again. You may be surprised at your answer.

Join me next week for More about the cost of justice in America.