| I am happy to accept your corroboration. I cannot see capping lawyers salaries. The unintended consequences of tampering with even labor markets too much are often dire. Mechanical equality does not necessarily equal fairness. For example, if the burden of the discovery process largely falls on a company, it needs to hire more lawyers, paralegals, and clerical staff, very likely. Although the contingency system encourages frivolous suits, it also allows access to persons who would not be able to afford litigation on an hourly fee basis. Overall, if we are trying to reduce costs, there are several options: increase the amount of legal work that can be done by paralegals; inject more energy into the arbitration process, to encourage settlement; cap awards, and require a stronger showing of fault, especially in negligence suits. I am sure there are others, like allowing more suits to be heard by a judge; expediting processes like discovery by penalizing fishing expeditions through admonitions and contempt citations; and increasing the purview of the small claims courts. |
