Unsuitable behavior
America's litigious nature is making us all look bad
Lawsuit fever has spread to Mount Pleasant.
Todd Levitt’s case against Zachary Felton for a parody Twitter account put Central Michigan University in the spotlight this summer. Just months after that story, a lawsuit about faculty pay against Central Michigan University President George Ross has been reopened
Our school has been dragged back into court under the public eye. We speak for this community when we say that frivolous lawsuits need to stop.
Our country’s legal system, built upon equality and justice, is one of the fruits of our freedom. The fact that citizens have the ability to settle problems with one another inside a court of law, which follows a fair due process, speaks volumes about our nation’s emphasis on legal justice. Not all countries have this freedom.
However, the fact that Americans file about 16 million civil lawsuits each year, many of which are without merit, suggests we are abusing our freedom to file suit.
In our citizens’ defense, cheesy lawyer commercials encouraging litigious behavior are plastered across all types of media and make filing suit more accessible and appealing.
But not only do frivolous lawsuits make a mockery of the legal system, they cost a lot of money and unnecessarily damage reputations.
When rapacious plaintiffs try to get rich through the legal system, or when parties take petty disagreements to court, our country suffers. The U.S. shells out $264 billion per year on lawsuits, making our legal system by far the costliest in the world, according to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.
Having the right to file a lawsuit is important, but so is using proper discretion when deciding whether or not to file suit. Just because citizens have the right to litigate does not mean they should do it.
And regardless of the outcome, Levitt’s lawsuit has already cost him and Felton much more than legal fees. These court cases influence the image of our campus.
The damage these lawsuits have had on the reputations of those involved, as well as the community in which they live and work, will linger long after the verdict.
We as a society need to figure out how to solve our differences without wasting billions of dollars and adding unnecessary strain to an already burdened legal system.
Like a virus spreading through our country’s culture since its founding, using the legal system to retaliate against parties that have wronged us should never be a first option, and with cooler heads, it should not be our last resort either.
