Legal Con Man Tactics Used in Flood of Frivolous Law Suits

--Awash in Law Suits, American Court System Struggling to get out from Under

Magalia, California--A sue-happy America has unleashed a tidal wave of law suits on its court system. Once called, "frivolous," many of these are now being won by plaintiffs, some with eye-popping jury awards. At risk are not only deep-pockets defendants, but struggling small business persons of every ilk. people who can ill-afford such legal attacks.

A random sampling:

A West Virginia convenience store worker receives a jury award of $3,000,000 when she injures her back while opening a jar of pickles.

Suit brought against a Las Vegas casino by a California man claiming the casino was negligent in permitting him to gamble away $1,000,000 while he was drunk.

Passengers sue American Airlines for the "emotional impact" of 28 seconds of turbulent weather on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. A jury awards them $2,000,000.

The manufacturer of Louisville slugger baseball bats is sued for $1,000,000 as the result of a ball hit with one of its bats bouncing off the head of a player.

A mother, rushed to a hospital emergency room, caused her 2 daughters so much trauma that they sue the hospital--not for their mother's treatment--for the emotional stress this caused them.

A 420-pound man sues McDonald's for employment discrimination. for not hiring him. Federal judge lets trial stand.

A Missouri woman wins $6,000 from a beauty salon for emotional stress and early retirement caused by a bad hair treatment.

Four women sue a California seafood restaurant for emotional stress, and subsequent psychiatrist visits, when one of them bites into a condom in a cup of clam chowder.

A volunteer, unpaid little league baseball coach,a street-maintenance worker, is sued for $2,000 by the father of the team's catcher. The complaint? Poor coaching.

With shades of con man tactics, such law suits are proliferating as America's law schools let loose a flood of new lawyers on its citizenry, many of them relishing in praying on the economic system in general. Canada, too has suffered from this con-man type plague which seemingly grows on its populace like a colony of E Coli bacteria attacking a slab of choice Canadian beef, critics say.

Jack Payne, author of 55 business books, wraps up the subject this way, "The only hope for all the unfortunate defendants seems to be to subscribe to, and believe in, the Law of Bureaucracy: The second myth of management efficiency is that skill equals success," he says. "Often it does not.. This seems about the last hope in erecting a con-man-resistant shield against these abuses of the system.""