[KLUG Advocacy] I love this kind of stuff ...

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> Amen to that.  It's particularly encouraging that he won a legal battle 
> against a giant company without hiring his own lawyer!  Proof that it is 
> possible (albeit barely) for an intelligent non-lawyer to understand law.
> >Nah, they'd just be more selective.  They'd sue the elderly or
> >single-parents who don't have the time or energy to mount a defense, or
> >the less educated (this guy could read and understand legal briefs).
> >I'd like a simple law: If a publicly traded corporation wants to file a
> >suit against an individual it has to pay the courts a $1,000,000 service
> >fee which is not to be counted in any recoverable court/legal fees.
> I rather like England's system.  If you file a suit and lose, YOU pay 
> the legal fees for the defense!  That might be a bit harsh on the other 
> side and scaring away lawsuits that are valid, 

Sure, it really is a choice about which side you want to scare.

> but they don't have 
> problems with frivolous ones.  Maybe a middle ground where the plaintiff 
> only pays if the judge rules that the suit was stupid. 
> Canada has similar civil laws to ours, as far as I know, but they don't 
> have the same problems with silly lawsuits.  I have no idea how they 
> manage it.

The real problem is the Press; ours doesn't work.  Because in truth
there is no crushing load of silly law-suits - why do you think every
time someone wants to make the case there is that they site the same few
instances?

http://spinwatch.server101.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=228

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0122-11.htm

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.mencimer.html

In general our legal system works very very well;  the problem that
began this thread doesn't have anything to do with our legal system, it
has to do with corporations using extra-legal means (intimidation)
wrapped in legal jargon - and neither our society nor our politic being
particularly interesting in doing anything about it [ not, I think, out
of corruption, but because of a much more dangerous condition of
apathy. ]
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