The Litigation Explosion

by Walter K. Olson

Book Overview

Walter K. Olson is fast becoming the legal world's foremost whistleblower. A columnist for Reason magazine and author of The Excuse Factory, Olson makes complex legal issues understandable to people... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452268249
• ISBN13: 9780452268241
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A hell of a book everyone should read!

This book will remain timeless given the new legal assault onthe tobacco industry and the gun manufacturers. To find out the details and the evolution of legal concepts as it affects society, the reader should immerse himself in this momentous and extremely witty and well-written book by former Manhattan Institute scholar, Walter K. Olson. Olson's book traces the history of legal theory and ethics, and discusses the impact of these evolutionary (and revolutionary) changes on modern American society. Olson wittily, yet scholarly, details the detrimental effects of the litigation explosion on society. The book should be prescribed reading for anyone who recognizes that he/she too may well be caught in the net of litigation - that is, everyone of us. Olson makes it amply clear that no one is immune from this societal disease and that a strong remedy is needed to cure this affliction.As I predicted in an editorial in the April 1993 issue of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, "On the Liability Crisis and the Glut of Litigators," the rate of litigation and the adversarial legal system has intensified with the presidency of Bill Clinton, who we know has the trial lawyers as his greatest campaign finance supporters. The litigation industry's proclivity to generate business for itself has been given a boost with his presidency, or rather co-presidency with attorney Hillary Clinton, and medical litigation has been no exception. Today, the attorney-litigators in collusion with an authoritarian public health establishment have targeted tobacco products and gun manufacturers, and have set their sights on HMOs and in the not-to-distant future, the fast food industry and nutritional products, particularly those that are considered more caloric than others and unhealthy by the coming new health police. These legal precedents are negating citizens their personal responsibility and their autonomy by blaming all their ills and afflictions on the acts of others, changing societal values in the process, and costing society billions of dollars.This book does not deprecate honest attorneys who perform legal work necessary to adjudicate justice (e.g. criminal law), or who do the legal work necessary for the everyday business affairs of society: execute the required transactions in business deals, negotiate contracts, draw wills, carry out corporate work, serve in advisory or managerial capacity as general counsels and perform other non-trial work. What Mr. Olson denounces are those "wheel-of-fortune" and "lottery litigators" who aggressively participate in "the sue-for-profit litigation industry" for their own vested financial interest. As the author persuasively demonstrates these swashbuckling litigators are causing untold harm to the country and are unraveling the fabric of our nation.What does Mr. Olson propose to thwart the litigation juggernaut? First, structured contingency fees should be implemented with a sliding fee-cap whereby fees diminish a

Required Reading For Every American

Walter Olson has produced the best book on the subject of lawsuits and related problems in America today. His research is scholarly and the presentation is lively. Your blood may boil but unless you're a lawyer, you'll have a hard time arguing your way out of the illuminated nonsense in our legal system that Olson exposes. If you like cheap novels this book isn't for you; but if you want to understand one of the major problems with the crazy U.S. legal system, you can't afford to miss this one. Great reading and worth the time. I consider it #1 on the list in this subject matter area. Olson has done Americans a favor; will they do something about it?