The case of attorney Roy Pearson, who sued his dry cleaner for $54 million over some missing pants is over, and the court did the right thing, bouncing the case at the first opportunity.  Interestingly, it took only a few days for the forces of Corporate America to begin using the case of the $54 million pants to bolster their case for cutting off the rights of the truly injured. 

It is undeniable that the pants lawsuit was an abuse of the system.  It's a shame that the case ever got filed.  But is it an argument for tort reform? 

The judge in the case was originally going to rule whether that Pearson would have to pay the dry cleaner's lawyers' fees.  However, the winning defendants withdrew their request to have Pearson pay the fees, because ordinary citizens contributed enough to pay them.  If the judge had granted that motion, the system would have worked exactly as it is supposed to work.  In frivolous lawsuits, it has always been within the judge's power to make the offending plaintiff pay for the trouble he caused.  However, the possibility of a frivolous lawsuit is no more a reason to restrict lawsuits than the O.J. Simpson case is a reason to rid the country of kitchen cutlery. 

Lawsuits serve several important functions.  In the free enterprise system, it is critical that all businesses pay their own way.  If a business leaves a trail of injured people in its wake, and those people go uncompensated, then the business is freeloading on those people no less than if it failed to pay its rent.  That freeloading business can then set its prices lower, gaining a competitive advantage from being subsidized by the uncompensated victims. 

A related, but separate, benefit of lawsuits is that they change the risk/profit calculation of businesses.  Here's an example that you probably never thought of.  Remember when lawsuits against McDonalds for their unhealthy food were ridiculed as frivolous?    At the time, you couldn't get a healthy meal at the world's largest restaurant chain.  Have you been to McDonalds lately?  There are at least three kinds of salads available, as well as fruit and yogurt and other healthy food.  It was a simple case of calculation of risk and benefit.  The winner was the American people. 

The threat of lawsuits has improved our lives in many ways, including flame-retardant night clothing, seat belts, and trucks that go "beep-beep-beep" when they back up.  The people who weren't injured because of those innovations do not even know that they were beneficiaries of our legal system. 

The next time you see an editorial opposing "frivolous" lawsuits, take note.  They never quote the statistics, because the statistics show that the number of tort lawsuits has been steadily declining for about twenty years.  You can easily look up these numbers by going to the National Center for State Courts, (http://www.ncsconline.org) a nonpartisan organization which keeps detailed statistics of the usage of America's court system. 

It is a marvel of propaganda that the insurance companies and big business have succeeded in turning the minds of working-class Americans against the system which will provide for their families if they are hurt or killed by negligence or defective products.  The good news is that a growing number of Americans now realize that they have been victims of a con job.  The bad news is that they usually learn only after they or a loved one is seriously injured, and the wrongdoer walks away, laughing all the way to the bank.