America - Land of Frivolous Lawsuits

This morning I read a news story from Chicago about Chuck E. Cheese being sued by a woman whose daugther was alledgedly "severly injured" during a field trip at the restaurant in "2006". The woman and her attorney are seeking over $5o,ooo in damages.

When I first came to America, I didn't understand why the exact same value meal here at McDonalds costs so much more than in Hong Kong, considering that the McDonalds in Hong Kong are paying much higher rent there. Now I can see why, I assume every business in America have to spend money on 1)preventing lawsuits, or 2)defending lawsuits or 3) to insure against lawsuits.

This lawsuit I read is no shock to me because after being in America all this time, I am used to reading about people suing their dry clearners, schools, the police, the hospitals and the governments... No wonder the courts here are so busy and it takes so long to sechedule court date to trial criminals. Lawyers in Hong Kong will never file a suit like this even if it's April 1st fool's day and people are supposed to play some practical jokes. I think the court there won't even bother to spend time to receive a petition like that to see if it should be thrown out or not. Such a petition will never make it to even the trash can of the court in Hong Kong, period.

I have seen that "suing" and "defending lawsuits" are major activities in the American economy. The question is if such activities benefit the American economy. I am no economist but this is my logic as an average working Joe: if the people and government in this country spend an aweful lot of time in the "lawsuits" activies whether to sue or to be sued... or to prevent from being sued... I wonder how much of this time and engery spent could have been used to actually produce products or services that can be exported for money or be used domestically, thus decreasing overseas spending.

The way I see America is, people aren't productive enough to make money for this country, but they are big spenders and consumers who spend big on foreign goods and service cause they don't even produce enough for themselves. America is like a family where the husband and wife don't work enough but spend most of their time quarrelling with each other. When the husband feels apologetic after the fight, he will go out and buy a jewlery set for his wife on his credit card. The wife does just the same... Meanwhile, the children all need to be fed, need to be educated and need that IPod and Blackberry... they think mom and dad have a good job and stable income cause they seem to do fine charging everything on their credit cards. How long do we think this family will substain? How do we expect America to be productive and competitive in the global enonomy when so many people or politicians here spend more time and engergy on lawusits and fighting against each other in court or in Congress?

Everything here have become expensive, from hamburgers to utilities to health insurance, etc etc... Why? It's because productivity is lacking and it costs more to produce any service or product. How do we expect more affordable healthcare when hospitals and doctors are being sued everyday for millions. It won't because somehow, all these legal defense fees, settlements and mal-practice insurace have to be paid. In order to keep paying for all these administrative costs to prevent lawsuits and then the cost to fight and insure lawsuits, our insurance premium have to be raised or our quality of care has to be lowered. (with cheaper tests, cheaper procedures, cheaper equipment...) For me, I would rather the doctors and hospitals cut the legal expenses instead of expenses on equipment, procedures and pathology. But I have no choice, so I am willing to pay for a higher premium.

I think this country needs tort reform before introducing any kind of economic or health reform.