Frivolous Defenses

The insurance industry has beaten into the public’s head that “frivolous lawsuits” are a problem. The poster child for “frivolous lawsuits” is the legendary hot coffee lawsuit filed by Stella Liebeck who was disfigured by a boiling McDonalds’ coffee. Once people read the actual facts about that case (and not the insurance/corporate narrative) they often believe that Stella was vastly under-compensated by the jury for her horrific injuries. An award-winning documentary was made about the real facts and truth of Stella’s case.

Frivolous court filings are a real problem, but they don’t come from where most people expect: frivolous filings come from insurance company lawyers. A recent data analysis of court filings shows that thousands of filings by insurance companies have zero merit.  These frivolous defenses only serve to slow down the court system, increase the costs of the parties (enrich the defense lawyer who get paid by the hour) and waste time.  Taxpayer-funded courts have to set aside time to deal with the frivolous filings and dismiss them once they are challenged by the injury victim.  A system should be imposed that tracks the number of frivolous filings made by each party whether an insurance company, corporation, individual or attorney so the repeat offenders can be marked as frivolous filers.