On Jul 13, 7:55 am, "Stephen M"
wrote:
I think that we should hold an immediate grassroots peoples'
referendum and insist that _all_ contracts and _all_ lawsuits
automatically include "prevailing party gets legal fees and court
costs". It would free up about 60% of the court's time, people would
act line grown ups and learn to seek to agree, and there wouldn't be
so many of these newsgroup retaliation posts.

Who posted the above? You or me?

Although that sounds like a nice idea on the surface, It's oversimplistic.

Maybe we should get the lawyers involved in drafting it up so it will
lose its simplicity.

Consider the scenario of an average Joe who has a reasonable claim against a
corporate giant (or anybody with deep pockets). No one would ever sue
someone with the capacity to purchase a huge team of high-powered attorneys,
because the possibility of a loss would devastating.

It would eliminate the "well, I almost have a case" lawsuits which
shouldn't be in court in the first place. But, you're right, there
should be efforts to minimize lawyers milking cases and their
ridiculous billing hours. How this transition would happen, I don't
know - it's like asking the fox guarding the hen house how to get rid
of the fox problem.

Court costs? Sure. Maybe provide judges with some latitude to impose
punitive damages for frivolous claims

Why should the suit have to be frivolous to get court costs?

R