There's an article in the NY Times today about Slapp, strategic lawsuits against public participation. This is where you get sued for saying something critical against a company. The article of course goes into specific instances and mentions laws being passed to prevent this sort of thing.
I see it as more of a specific area pointing towards the general dysfunction of our legal system. This is symptom of a problem that also includes the profusion of frivolous lawsuits, medical malpractice, incarceration rates, fines that don't scale with income, etc. We stand out against every other developed nation on legal issues with more lawyers, prisoners, lawsuits, complexity of the tax code, and perhaps regulatory burden (I'm far less sure on that last one). We're past the point of isolated fixes and need to do a serious look at why our legal system stands out so much, mostly in a negative light, and what we can do to revamp the whole thing.
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I agree, but I also believe that courts compete with corruption. I can live with a little too much litigation if it means a little less bribery.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we need a mechanism to sue bloggers for neglect.
ReplyDeleteSorry, it's been fairly busy around here. I should be back to more frequent posting this week.
ReplyDeleteIt's been busy around here, too. But I figure when you can't write, I can still comment as long as I don't try to be topical.
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