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Crazy Legal Fact
How many lawsuits would you guess are filed each year in the U.S.? Before starting law school, I would probably have guessed a few million, at most. I would have been wrong. According to Joseph P. Glannon's Civil Procedure: Examples & Explorations, I would have been very wrong:
In 1998 an astounding 91,000000 cases were filed in the courts of the fifty states, while some 1,700,000 were filed in the federal courts (56).
Holy litigious society, Batman! Yikes.
p.s.: Batman can't fly, but the batmobile can. Discuss.
Posted November 4, 2003 06:01 AM | law school life generally
Because I rather talk about Batman than pay attention in Labor Law, I must say that the Batwing can fly, the Batmobile just drives really fast.
Posted by: Beanie at November 4, 2003 07:59 AM
If we assumed each case was being claimed by a different person, then that would be somewhere near 31.5% of the population engaging in litigation. Yeesh!
However, I think the number is way lower because of counterclaims, crossclaims, multi-party claims, etc. Also, you've got corporations, which are considered legal persons, engaging in claims against each other... So, my point? Not much of one. It's just that I think there are a bunch of claims in court, but a significantly lower amount of people participating in them than we expect.
And, I don't think the Batmobile could fly. It Could climb walls (thank you Tim BUrton), but not fly. However, it is the most bad ass car ever, so I won't split hairs.
Posted by: Adam at November 4, 2003 01:51 PM
You caught the E & E bug! I love those books. The Civ Pro one isn't that useful for my class (um, mostly because we aren't learning Civ Pro) but I use them for all my other classes. Much better than the commercial outlines...
Posted by: so sue me at November 4, 2003 04:45 PM
What is E&E? Am curious now, and also wondering about Batman v. Batmobile. Very interesting....
Posted by: transmogriflaw at November 5, 2003 12:50 AM
It's a book called Examples and Explanations. They're produced for a number of subjects, and it's pretty much what the title says, examples and explanations. Glannon's Civ Pro is supposed to be the best of the titles, but I'm using an Admin Law one right now.
Posted by: Beanie at November 5, 2003 02:39 PM
So a lot of cases are filed here. I had an Italian attorney tell me her backlog was a mere 9,000 cases. Her backlog alone...and there were dozens of attorneys in the office with similar backlogs.
You don't even want to know the Court of Cassation (Italy's Supreme Court) backlog. It's over 50,000 cases. Why? They don't have the power of Cert. And I can't spell Cert. So there.
Posted by: greg at November 5, 2003 11:22 PM
Hey, BTW, I got a new website...
lawisfun.crimeny.net
Posted by: greg at November 5, 2003 11:24 PM
So... given the high caseloads, is it appropriate for judges to consider their workload in deciding cases?
Wouldn't it be nice if someone wrote something about that?
See Mr. P, Federal Judges and Fearing the "Floodgates of Litigation," 6 U. Pa. J. Const. L. (forthcoming 2003... actually, like this Friday).
Posted by: mr. p at November 6, 2003 12:43 AM
Congratulations, Mr. P! I guess thank goodness we're not in Italy? But maybe the number of lawsuits would somehow decrease if people knew their case would never be heard? And then maybe people would find other ways to settle disputes? And maybe that would be good? I don't know. Perhaps I'll try to read Mr. P's article and learn something. Or perhaps I'll just read my E&E books (I only have Civ Pro -- so far; can anyone recommend the torts version?).
Greg: Sorry. I thought I'd changed the link a while back, but I was mistaken. Fixed now.
Beanie: Ah, Batwing. I knew there was a solution to the dilemma, and there it is.
Posted by: ambimb at November 6, 2003 05:24 AM
Glannon's Torts E&E is the best supplement out there. The man is a commercial outline god.
Posted by: Adam at November 6, 2003 10:35 AM
To my knowledge, the Batmobile was strictly a vehicle and not some sort of hovercraft.
If we are looking to the swell 60's series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, CLICK HERE for a Batmobile website created by someone who obviously does not have 50 pages of Torts reading tonite!
Posted by: Cinnamon at November 10, 2003 02:23 AM
