Maryland Law Review 46:3-39 (1986). [Reprinted in part in D. Luban and D. Rhode (eds.), Legal Ethics. Mineola: Foundation Press, ( ) and M.E. Katsh (ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Legal Issues Guilford: Dushkin Publishing Group, 1991
Abstract
Few Americans in the early months of 1986 could disagree with the observation of Senator-McConnell that: Hardly a day goes by that we do not hear or read of the dramatic increase in the number of lawsuits filed, ofthe latest multimillion dollar verdict, or of another small business, child care center, or municipal corporation that has had its insurance cancelled out from under it.' The reason for higher insurance rates and crowded courthouses, he continued, is "quite simply, everyone is suing everyone, and most are getting big money." Americans have developed a "mad romance . . . with the civil litigation process."'* Two days later, introducing the Litigation Abuse Reform Act of 1986, he noted that "we are all suffering a progressively debilitating disease'the disease of hyperlexis, too much litigation."' This diagnosis is widely shared. Columnist Jack Anderson tells us that: Across the country, people are suing one another with abandon; courts are clogged with litigation; lawyers are burdening the populace with legal bills. This massive, mushrooming litigation has caused horrendous ruptures and dislocations at a flabbergasting cost to the nation.'
