BASAB DASGUPTA
When I was growing up in India, no one from my family, or any friend, had any encounter with the legal system. The only courtroom scenes I saw were on the movie screen, typically involving serious crimes like murder, robbery and fraud. After I came to America, it took me a while but I eventually realized that this was a highly litigious society. People are ready to sue someone for the pettiest disagreement or the most minor damage or injury. This mindset is inherent among all Americans.
If a visitor to someone’s home accidentally falls and gets hurt, the first thought in the homeowner’s mind is not how to take care of the injury but worry that the injured person might file a lawsuit against him. The reason for a lawsuit can be almost anything. Marital discord, joint ownership of properties, unfair treatment at job, discrimination based on race and gender, medical malpractice, settlement of inheritance, selling faulty merchandise, breach of contract, and the list goes on. Litigation always gets attention because of the expense and hassle involved; no one wants it. It also leaves a permanent record in the legal system’s archive which may come back to haunt years later.
Fees for a typical attorney run about $300 per hour and go up from there. The wheel of justice turns slowly; one can be tied up in a lawsuit for months if not years causing emotional stress and disruptions in normal routine not to mention financial drain, regardless of who filed it. There is an avenue for legally resolving disputes quickly with minimal expense if the dollar value of the disputed item is small (the number varies from state to state).
It is called the “small claims court”. There is a judge, and both parties present their cases before the judge. Attorneys are not allowed; the judge’s decision which is rendered immediately is legally binding but can be appealed in a higher court. It is not just the parties involved in lawsuits; this litigious aspect of society manifests itself in a variety of ways that affect our everyday life. Here are some examples. Any official set of forms in the context of a contract or job application or financial transaction is full of pages of disclosures whose main purpose is to protect the other party from future legal actions against them. We are supposed to read, understand and sign off on this paperwork. At the end of TV commercials about any new medical treatment we are forced to listen to a long list of potential side-effects which are inserted so that we cannot sue them if we end up suffering from any of them.
We are hounded by commercials on TV from personal injury lawyers who promise to get millions of dollars from defendants if we are hurt in any accident. When the amounts involved are large, many lawyers are willing to work on a “contingency” basis which means that they would not charge unless and until they secure a major financial victory in exchange for a hefty share of that benefit.
It is difficult to get immediate expert advice to solve a problem, be it a health problem, car problem, tax issue or plumbing defect in the house because no one is willing to give us that advice without signing a bunch of paperwork for the fear that we might legally accuse them of wrongdoing in case the advice does not work. Another indirect consequence of the US judicial system affecting every citizen is jury duty. Everyone receives a summons in the mail to appear for jury duty at intervals of five to ten years.
One must report to the designated court for several days to see if one is selected as a juror. If selected, one must serve in the jury pool for the entire duration of the trial. The employers of the selected jurors are obliged by law to pay their regular salary while on jury duty. It is interesting to note that about 86 per cent of lawyers in the US are non-Hispanic whites while the number of non-Hispanic whites as a percentage of the total population is only 60 per cent. Most of our politicians are lawyers by profession.
I wonder if that is where the wealth and influence of white folks comes from and eventually gives one the impression of a “white supremacy”. The good news is that second generation Indian Americans are entering the legal profession in record numbers, and many are already very famous. Most notable is Sri Srinivasan, the Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit, who was considered by President Obama to be a US Supreme court nominee. If one lives in the US, one cannot escape the long arm of justice. I had the misfortune of being involved in lawsuits on three occasions.
The first was my divorce. It was an amicable split without any contentious issues. All issues could have been resolved in a friendly meeting in the presence of lawyers, but we had to go to court just to make it official. The second time was a dispute with a partner regarding a real estate property we jointly owned. Without going into details, here are some events that shocked me from an expense point of view.
Every time I called or emailed my lawyer or sent something to review, he would charge me for his time with a minimum of ten minutes. I went to the superior court with him for our first hearing. We waited for a long time for our turn. Eventually, the other party requested a “continuance” (meaning postponement) and the judge approved. We spent almost eight hours (including lunch time and driving time) for nothing and my attorney charged me for the entire period. I spent close to $50000 for the trial expenses. My third encounter with the judicial system was during the collapse of the real estate market during the recession of 2008.
I had stopped making loan payments for a second mortgage. Several rounds of negotiations failed because I had no money to pay what the lender was asking. The lender filed a lawsuit against me. It was futile to fight them in court because they had the legal advantage. I did not even attend any hearing.
The judge awarded them a “default judgment”. With this judgment, they could have come after my bank balance, paycheck, material assets etc. to retrieve their money. Fortunately, we later agreed on a settlement and I avoided bankruptcy. Although I never served as a juror, I was summoned three times and on one occasion interviewed by attorneys of both the plaintiff and the defendant; the case involved domestic abuse allegations filed by the wife against her husband. Both attorneys were keen to know about my marital life. They were probably afraid that I would be biased in favour of the husband because of the male-dominated Indian society.
At one point, I told the judge, “Your Honor, contrary to the popular belief, Asian Indians do not routinely beat up their wives”. Even though the judge chuckled, I was not selected to be a juror. I accept all these hassles and annoyances as a price to pay for “liberty and justice for all” in this wonderful litigious country.
(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America.)
