This 1997 book by Peter A. Bell and Jeffrey O’Connell sadly remains relevant.
From Chapter 5:
After all, we are dealing with what purports to be a system of justice. And justice is hard to quantify. (page 140)
Before his injury, for all his insecurities, Howard Young felt that he had a significant amount of control over his life’s course, and over his family’s lives as well. Whether Howard was right or wrong to have those feelings may be a conundrum in American society, where the Horatio Alger myth competes vigorously and constantly with the fatalism of “shit happens” bumper stickers. (page 142)
The major event in the victim’s life – his accident and injury – is at most a peripheral part of his friends’ lives. (page 146)
In a tort lawsuit, the parties tell their stories – often powerfully, for the parties are aided by professional storytellers: their lawyers. (page 151)
American culture continues to process a strong, probably dominant strain of individual responsibility, which frequently causes negative reactions when people turn to the courts to blame others for their misfortunes. Those negative reactions tend to be exaggerated when, as with tort lawsuits, the person trying to shift blame also seems to be trying to “get something for nothing.” (page 156)
Just as there are reasons to believe that the tort lawsuit is an injured person’s healthy response of “doing something about it,” there are reasons to believe that the lawsuit can represent an unhealthy response of “wallowing in it.” (page 158)
There is no question that being sued for having negligently or intentionally injured someone is a most unpleasant and bruising experience. Most of the fury that health care professionals exhibit whenever a discussion turns to lawyers undoubtedly emanates from the pain they feel or think they will feel if sued. (page 159)
And plaintiffs lose a substantial number of their lawsuits, in the range of half – or more – of those that go to trial. (page 160)
Similarly, tort law’s critics argue that the dangers of breast implants trumpeted by litigation have been grossly exaggerated, as have, they assert, those associated with GM pickup trucks – exaggerations, it is asserted, orchestrated by plaintiffs’ lawyers and expert witnesses in their hire. (pages 160-1)
Insurance fraud is lucrative not only for claimants, who receive several times their economic loss, but for doctors (especially chiropractors), who receive inflated payments, and for lawyers who receive their percentage contingent fee from a larger settlement. (page 164)
Insurers characterize cases as “under control” or “out of control,” depending upon whether the claimant has yet consulted a lawyer. (page 165)