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Live Talk With Author of Newsweek Cover Story Newsweek Online, December 11, 2003 From Newsweek Online:
"The explosion of lawsuits is nothing new--nor is it all bad. Starting in the
1960s, crusading judges and well-meaning social reformers began opening the way
for the powerless and dispossessed to assert their rights by going to court. But
today Americans don't just sue big corporations or bad people. They sue doctors
over misfortunes that no doctor could prevent. They sue their school officials
for disciplining their children for cheating. They sue their college professors
for giving them low grades. They sue their local governments when they slip and
fall on the sidewalk, get hit by drunk drivers, get struck by lightning on city
golf courses--and even when they get attacked by a goose in a park (that one brought
the injured plaintiff $10,000.) Stuart S. Taylor and Evan Thomas write in this
week's cover story that there may be a way to end the madness: Legal reformers
in some states have passed dozens of laws since the 1970s designed to stem the
wave of personal injury suits; in the public schools, rather than running to court,
aggrieved parents might take their disputes to a parent-teacher committee; in
the medical sphere most malpractice and other health-related claims could be moved
to a special court of medical experts. Stuart S. Taylor, Jr. joined us for a Live
Talk on frivolous lawsuits, their costs to society and how to fix the problem
on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 11 a.m. ET."
Click here to read the transcript at Newsweek Online. | |
