[Growltigger]

Hmmm, as what may be the resident lawyer on this page, I feel I must defend my profession and have the following observations:

1 I do not think the correct phrase is "pro bono". Pro bono means working for free, where you do not expect to be paid. I do pro bono work for certain charities, where I give them a certain amount of advise per year free. There is no payment.

The word you are looking for is "contingent". American attorneys can work on a contingent fee basis ie no win, no fee. Most other jurisdictions contain strong prohibitions or restrictions on accepting contingent fees. We can in England, but the extent and fee uplift are regulated.

2 Please keep you comments restricted to American attorneys. After all, the US has 90% of the world's lawyers, and also has the legal regime which allows the sort of spurious claims against which you are protesting.

Unfortunately, American lawyers give the rest of us a bad name, and I for one am stick of being lumped with them.

3 Also, you need to exclude most commercial lawyers from your statement. In fact, limit your statement to "American litigators" and you are nearer where you want to be.

Corporate lawyers (such as myself) do not deal in transactions that can lead to class suite or frivolous/vexatious claims. We deal in business matters, and save in Enron style cases of fraud, the majority of what we do will not get to court, will not have settlements, and basically is down to sorting out contracts.

American Litigators can, and they do.

4 If you have a problem, lobby your congressmen and CHANGE YOUR LEGAL SYSTEM. The US legal system has become what it is because of what is perceived to be the causation of jurisprudence flowing from the US constitution, and certain landmark "freewill" cases. It is now an inalieable right of free speech in the US for anyone to sue anybody for anything.

This has serious knock on effects. For example, the cost of your healthcare is dramatically increased, because every time you go to hospital with a minor ailment, you have to be tested for pretty much every possible permutation of disease on the planet, because if on the offchance you actually have got the million to one shot case of Growltigga's dribbling bottom virus, and the hospital hasnt picked it up, hey ho, you can sue them for millions and millions of dollars (as if millions and millions of dollars is reasonable compensation) because lordy, they didnt test for absolutely bloody everything - end result? insurance goes up, healthcare goes up - you disclude the defence of reasonable causation which is the bloody fundamental basis of pretty much every other legal system in the world, other than US!

Also explains why the coda franca of the world is English law, rather than any Federal law. New York law is used on quite a few transactions, but its commercial code is rather similar to English law.

The biggest change you should make to your legal system is juries, and having a reality check on the level of damages your juries can award in court.

By way of comparison, here in the UK, a hospital was sued for causing brain damage to a patient. The patient was awarded £2million. This was compared with similar cases in the US and France. In France, the award was £1.8, in the US, $75 million??

You will have lawyers pursuing such cases where they have even the slimmest chance of a slice of such an astomical payout. LAw is a business, just like any other.

5 Finally, Atrocities and other posters, I am always happy to see any form of comment, but may be you should think harder about who or what you are insulting before you make blanket statements. I am a lawyer, I dont like people making sideswipes based on what a bunch of unregulated tosspots in a different jurisdiction are doing. If you want to slate them, keep it to American lawyers, and dont try and bring the rest of the world into the insult.

Also, next time you have an accident at work, or are hit by a car, or are getting divorced, or are assaulted in the street, who on earth do you think will be the person you turn to to sort out your problems?

Apologies for the rambling, but I need to type this quickly before I go off and throw another single mother out on the street for not paying her TV licence!

[ January 28, 2004, 14:14: Message edited by: Growltigger ]