by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Writing a book doesn’t make attorney Lindsay Arthur unique, but the book’s message does.
Plenty of lawyers’ names can be found on the shelves of Barnes & Noble, but how many of those volumes call for the dismantling of the U.S. legal system?
Arthur’s “The Litigators” takes a fictional look at what he believes is a real problem: a civil justice system increasingly fueled by greed and ego.
“I didn’t write the book to look at abusive situations,” said Arthur, a prominent Minneapolis defense litigator. “I wanted to look at an overall problem that pervades the whole system.”
Arthur sees the flawed process at work in Florida, where he’s tried several cases. He was in Jacksonville Thursday to launch his book locally at a party hosted by Tracy Sadeghian of the Media Masters Group at the River City Brewing Company.
As Arthur sees it, Americans lean on lawsuits far too heavily and for the wrong reasons. In U.S. courts there are no accidents, only negligence. Success is too often measured in million dollar verdicts when an apology might have sufficed.
“The Litigators” examines the problem through a courtroom confrontation between a hustling young lawyer and a big-time corporate law firm. In the book, the clients take a backseat to the competition.
It’s a scenario that Arthur has seen play out too often in a 37-year legal career. As attorneys look to build reputations and bank accounts by amassing cash awards, they often overlook something: their clients’ best interests, he said.
Lawyers simply have a different criteria for success than their clients, said Arthur.
“Ask a lawyer about their most successful cases and nearly all will talk about some great victory in the courtroom,” he said. “Ask a client and they’ll talk about having a chance to be heard, to have their suffering acknowledged. None will talk about the outcome.”
Starting in law school, attorneys are taught to win, he said. Lawyers are girded with knowledge of torts and contracts like they are amassing weapons of war. In the rush to victory, very few stop to think whether the battle is worth fighting.
It’s an approach unique to America, he said. In Japan, disputes are often settled with apologies. In U.S. courts, a lawyer who permits a client apology comes close to committing malpractice. In America it seems, law means having never to say you’re sorry.
“If you get into an auto accident and you say to the other person, ‘I’m terribly sorry,’ that will be used against you in a suit, and it will be damaging,” said Arthur.
But lawyers aren’t all that ail American justice. Lindsay reserves plenty of blame for the clients. Americans are obsessed with their personal rights, and are eager to sue when they feel they’ve been wronged, he said.
“It’s not about what’s fair, it’s about ‘what are my rights?’” said Arthur.
The concept of absolute protection for absolute rights has created an environment where every mistake becomes negligence.
“Take a doctor doing his best in a high-pressure situation. He makes 50 decisions in 10 minutes. One of them is wrong and the patient dies. Should that be a lawsuit? Should every mistake lead to a lawsuit?”
Arthur suggests upping the standard to sue for damages from negligence to gross negligence. Another idea for improving American litigation is either common sense or radical. Before the claims, counter claims, mass filings, depositions, mudslinging and name calling, Arthur suggests — a conversation.
He’s not another lawyer preaching the gospel of alternative dispute resolution. Mediation occurs too late, he said, after both sides have wracked up massive bills that demand large cash settlements.
Arthur thinks lawyers should try to shepherd their clients into conversations to see if the issues can be worked out without a judge or jury. Arthur believes the simple act of conversation could save Americans annual billions of dollars in frivolous claims, court costs and lawyer fees.