| One out of every two Americans will sue some-one, sometime. Current estimates indicate thatfew of us can get through life without consult-ing a lawyer four or five times. Why are we solitigious? What do these numbers reveal aboutour national character? Suing has become an American parlor game.In this timely book a legal affairs journalist es-corts us through the welter of cases that coal-prise the annals of American litigation history,and analyzes what is peculiarly Americanabout tile way we use our courts. The under-lying motivations for suits, what the authorcalls "the hidden agenda" of the litigant;.fallrather neatly into five categories. We sue toprotest, to express grief, to effect social andpolitical changes, to gain vindication, to getmoney, and to get even. We use not just theouteome of the suit but the entire process of acourtroom trial, with its incumbent drama andpublicity, to accomplish our various goals. Marks illuminates the facts behind the mosttelling eases of our time, some little known andsome celebrated: the Buffalo Creek dana di-saster suit (grief), the Freddie Prinze suit(grief), Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee (politi-cal change), the Reader s Digest and NBCwomen s suit (social policy), Kent State (vindi- cation), and the "Streetcar Named Desire" suit(getting money). Intriguing details about casessuch as Jane Fonda s suit against Richard Nixonand the Miclaelle Triola Marvin suit emeerge toexemplify how innate a part of our national character is the whole notion of courtroom confrontation, in which two hired guns fight it out in a sort of modern-day O.K. Corral show- down. |
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