Lawyers in America have pushed through a number of changes to laws that now prevent justice or fair outcomes from being reached.
Consider this example: a company that guides people on rock climbing trips (a clearly dangerous activity that people sign waivers of liability for) brings Bob climbing. On the trip, Bob slips off a lead climb hold and breaks his arm. Bob finds a personal injury attorney to sue the company. Neither Bob nor the attorney have any financial stake – the attorney works for a 33% commission, Bob for 67% of winnings.
The company on the other hand needs to hire a litigation attorney since there are no potential winnings for the company’s attorney. The average cost here is $500 per hour. The company will need to pay this attorney for 2-3 weeks of work pre-trial, and 2 weeks of work during the trial if they are lucky and it is fast. 5 weeks * 5 days a week * 8 hours a day * $500 per hour = $100,000. The company further has the cost of its employees time to defend this case.
The company is forced to accept a settlement less than $100,000 because even if they win they will have to pay more than that in legal fees.
Our legal system has been stacked so we no longer can get justice through it, which is why many people seek justice outside of it. Or like Google, they fight every lawsuit to the maximum extent possible regardless of cost.
I am going to take Google’s approach in the future of fighting every lawsuit to the maximum extent possible since its either that or seek justice outside of the legal system.