Learned an absolutely fascinating history lesson today: None of this has been confirmed, so by all means call BS where you see it!
Prior to ~1989 the American Bar Association supported the concept of it being illegal for lawyers to advertise. They felt it cheapened their profession.
Up to this time, there were around 750,000 lawyers in the USA, 25% were considered underemployed.
A group of young lawyers formed a small subcoalition and challenged this by advertising. They were shut down by the law, and took the case to the supreme court. They won.
They grew in so doing this, and essentially did a coup in the Bar. They took it over. With their new political power, they then encouraged Congress to pass the Civil Rights law of 1991. This law, effectively opened the door to a whole new array of lawsuits. It did this by forcing trial by jury and punitive damage awards for any discrimination based law. Prior to this, it was trial by Judge (who actually knew the law), and awards were limited to actually damages and costs.
Combined with new advertising rights, this new legislation created a landslide of new discrimination lawsuits, such as the country has never seen.
Love em or hate em - this act is credited as being one of the largest factors in America today being one of the most litigious societies in the world. It corrected many ills - and IMHO introduced a whole lot of new ones. Individuals can essentially blackmail companies with risky lawsuits in fishing expeditions, or vindictive cases. They usually won't win, but only at great cost to the companies, and every so often, they'll hit the jackpot. It's a numbers game. Often the companies will just write a check to settle a weak lawsuit, rather than blow the money and take the risk of going to court.
Possibly related factor - To me it has been stated that one of the key factors that make doing business or opening a manufacturing facility in the USA not our labor costs. While wages are high, so too is productivity. The reason it's not cost effective to open a manufacturing business in the US is due to our difficult and high-risk (financially) labor and environmental laws.
If most of it is true, then MHO a better balance is needed. We probably did need more, as the USA was pretty difficult for many back in the 70's 80's and some ways even into today.
However, we're killing American business. It's also a stressful minefield for a basic manager to just do his job. My first suggestion - Punitive damages should go the government, not the suing agency. And compensation to legal fees should only come from the damage settlement that goes to the plaintiff. (i.e. someone sues, they get $30,000 in damages and $3,000,000 in punitive awards. That $3M is essentially a fine, so should go to .gov). I'd like to see a return to trial by judge. These cases are not innocent until proven guilty.
