Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantus
I live in Toronto ON and we get Fox TV from Buffalo NY. After prime time all the commercial spots are filled with adverts for one solicitor or another - if you were in an accident...if you caused the accident...if you lost this...or got sick with that. Makes it seem like everyone in the city is suing each other.
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Well, Americans do sue one another much more often than most other countries. If I remember correctly (and this is borne out by the liability rates I follow for a living), Canadians are a distant second but may soon get outpaced by the British.
There's another area where we're unique to the world, I think. Lawyers are allowed to advertise aggresively. That seems to not be the case elsewhere (at least in my travels by my recollection). We also have "class action" law suits where folks are grouped together to right a perceived wrong. Some of these ("Erin Brockovich") are the only way to keep major corporations honest, but some (the Mississippi silica case) are flagrant money-grabs by lawyers, who get 33% of any settlement.
One of the reasons I'm against tort reform is that most options would remove the right to file suit by people who have been wronged. Products fail or are poorly designed. Unless and until medical bankruptcy is no longer the only option, I can't see any legitimate reason for tort reform.
/soapbox