What is Frivolous?

To hear some tell it - everything is frivolous.

• Employees poisoned by asbestos
• Patients left permanently injured or dead because of medical negligence
• Employees who want justice from corporate wrongdoers like Enron
• Consumers who have been lied to about the safety of their prescription drugs

But none of these cases is frivolous. The truth is that data show there is no "explosion" of frivolous lawsuits. On the contrary, the legal system already takes a zero tolerance approach to cases without merit and federal rules exist to punish attorneys who bring them.

Our centuries old legal system has multiple procedural safeguards to ensure defendants' rights.

• A certain amount of strong evidence must be present for any case to proceed.
• Judges monitor filings at every step and can dismiss a case at almost any time.

Punishment Already Exists for Attorneys

Known as "Rule 11," this federal act specifically provides sanctions for attorneys who bring frivolous claims, including:

• Monetary damages to cover the cost of the disciplinary proceedings;
• Monetary damages to penalize the offending attorney, law firm, or parties that have violated the rules; and
• Any directives of a nonmonetary nature the court sees fit.

Bringing Frivolous Lawsuits Is Bad Business

When an attorney takes a case on contingency, s/he only gets paid for winning. Spending valuable time and money filing frivolous lawsuits that are thrown out by the judge is no way to make a living.

There is No Avalanche of Frivolous Suits

Special interest groups have been decrying a "litigation explosion" since at least 1986 and often talk about lawsuits in the abstract or with anecdotes, some of which are actually false. A look at the facts reveals a different picture.

• Recent analysis from the National Center for State Courts found that tort filings have declined by 5% since 1993.
  
• According to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of civil trials dropped by 47% between 1992 and 2001. The decrease was also reflected across specific case types. The numbers of automobile cases dropped 15%, premises liability 52.1%, medical malpractice 14.2% and product liability by 76%.
  
• The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics also shows that the trend in award size was down.
• The median inflation-adjusted award in all tort cases dropped 56.3% between 1992 and 2001 to $28,000.