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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Ulrich who wrote (7289)	2/12/2005 8:05:00 AM
From: rrufff	Respond to of 12465

The optimism stems from seeing a system that is broken first hand. At some point, the people will revolt and do something. It may be in 100 years LOL. The courts can no longer function in their role in society. Much of the "people level" court is still in the mid 20th century. Very few can afford civil litigation. The result is that he who is inclined to threaten can extort money, often from insurance companies. Insurance counsel counter relatively low hourly fees with double billing through very clever use of boilerplate and blaming it all on CYA and "due diligence." A tip that I would give a newbie is that when you hear "due diligence," either run for the hills or grab your wallet. Levels above the masses bog down with ridiculous cases such as the one you are discussing. Everyone knows that 90%+ of cases eventually settle, pretty much irrespective of the court or type of case. If there were business incentives, those cases would be moved 2 or more years ahead of when they do settle "at the court house door." The "due diligence" that lawyers are trained to do, amounts to boilerplate CYA and easy money, with very little actual progress. It could easily be replaced with informal mediation with settlements based on discounted future values, somewhere around a 40-60% number based on real losses. The use of money now, if the "it's a matter of justice" approach, can be changed to a business approach that would serve society in a positive way. With attorneys fees added to the losing side, there would be fewer frivolous cases. Non-friviolous cases come down to a toss of the coin. Another reason why they are settled. Again, this could be done earlier, but fees and wasted time would suffer <vbg>. Family courts are particularly bad with archaic rules for estates and divorce litigation that often results in fees in excess of disputable assets. A cry for mediation and social instruction can be heard, but is often ignored. Tax courts and federal district courts that deal with tax issues are a total joke, the product of a convoluted code that even the IRS cannot understand. Bankruptcy is a club where very little is accomplished other than the distribution of personal and corporate assets among the club members. Don't even get me started on the criminal system where drug and related cases fill our system. Mistakes and errors are rampant. We've seen how the use of "rats" has become the way to get convictions. Easier to make a deal with a low level person than to prove a case. Much of the problem is society's line of "give me justice," without wanting to pay the cost. The public has no idea how inefficient the system is until they actually go to a clerk's counter and seek help. People think and act before attempting to resolve their problems today. Their "cure" may very well may be worse than the disease. But that's what happens in a world where people are quick to attack, "talk to my lawyer," rather than trying to work things out and then going to court as a last resort, weapon of my ass destruction.