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Title: The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law by Walter K. Olson ISBN: 0-312-33119-3 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Justice or Calamity
Comment: The author writes that in the 1970s legal writings began proposing that judges create
some new rights to sue noting that some thinkers in the law schools and elsewhere had
come to see lawsuits as a king of surrogate social insurance, identifying deep pockets
from which accident victims might obtain compensation. In addition, law schools began to encourage lawyers to be entrepreneurs. Under this philosophy "...more than half of the nation's GNP would be routed through lawyer's offices. A lot would stay there."
The author states that trial lawyers are usurping the power vested by the Constitution in an elected Congress. He develops his thesis by reviewing the methods used by trial lawyers in litigation involving the tobacco settlement, gun control, silicone breast implants, asbestos, etc. In addition, the book discusses how some states, referred to as "The Jackpot Belt," are overly supportive of class action lawsuits and trial lawyers. In fact one southern town has class action lawsuits as its major industry and their wealthy trial lawyers are its elite citizens.
The text notes that the class action/mass tort litigation business is basically unregulated with the Washington Post newspaper lamenting that "we now have government by and for lawyers," who had "hijacked the public policy for private enrichment" in a "daring inventive and brazen" campaign. The author notes that all pretense of legitimacy was tossed aside when the trial bar referred to itself as a Fourth Branch of government, and notes that "...we allowed the Fourth Branch to seize the historic powers of government while escaping the long-evolved constraints on the abuse of that power."
While lamenting the rule of lawyers, the author notes that rise of the class action lawyers has been facilitated by the failure of congress and legislators to address critical social issues. However, the book ends stating "The new rule of lawyers brings us many evils, but perhaps the greatest is the way it robs the American people of the right to find its own future and pursue its own destiny."
The reader may not agree with the author's approach or all of his conclusions. Nevertheless, this book is worth taking time to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Hidden Gem
Comment: As a former (and now retired) business lawyer in California, I have observed the antics (and, yes, the anti-social tendencies) of the class action trial lawyers over the years with a great deal of embarrassment and chagrin, and have wondered how and when they would be reined in. That day is still a ways off, unfortunately, for the reasons Mr. Olson relates in his book.
Mr. Olson "tells it like it is," citing a mountain of well-researched facts and anecdotes, and he builds his case with the reader relentlessly. The author demolishes the myths that the trial lawyers' bar would have us believe, and explains why the system is out of control. Concludes he, "Year upon year we do nothing to govern our elite litigators, and the result at length is that they have decided to govern us." The ultimate victims are the taxpayers and the integrity of the legislative and judicial system.
This book should be required reading of every legislator and judge, both federal and state, as well as by every well-informed American, whether of conservative, liberal, moderate or agnostic bent. I rarely write book reviews for posting on www.Amazon.com, but this book was extraordinarily good.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Highly Relevant Expose
Comment: Walter Olson's The Rule of Lawyers is a highly relevant book for our ever more litigious society. In a well-written 307 pages, Olson presents a scathing indictment of what he refers to as "the Fourth Branch of Government"- trial lawyers. Olson clearly and persuasively argues in this book against the tort industry- beginning the book with a history of how our nation has allowed open season on a variety of industries- tobacco, car manufacturers, and gun manufacturers (among others) and walks the reader through the various campaigns the litigation elite have waged against Dow Corning, asbestos suppliers, and others. Olson also examines other litigation phenomena such as how TV newsmagazines act as mouthpieces for trial attorneys and how attorneys manipulate our jury system to achieve huge verdicts for their clients. Particularly interesting to me was the chapter entitled "The Jackpot Belt" where Olson analyzes trends in jury awards in states from Texas to Florida (the Jackpot Belt supposedly stretches from Beaumont to Pensacola) where juries have been especially generous in punitive damage awards.
I would recommend this book for anyone from lawyers, to law students or even to the layperson with an interest in this subject. Olson avoids technical, complex language and jargon and the book is highly readable.
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Title: The Case Against Lawyers by CATHERINE CRIER ISBN: 0767905040 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom by Philip K. Howard ISBN: 034543871X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit by Walter K. Olson ISBN: 0525249117 Publisher: Penguin USA Pub. Date: 01 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Death of Common Sense : How Law is Suffocating America by Phillip K Howard ISBN: 0446672289 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights: The Battle over Litigation in American Society by Thomas F. Burke ISBN: 0520227271 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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