Contrary to Popular Myth, Americans Not Very Litigious

By Sadhbh Walshe

October 24, 2013  |  I went swimming at a lake upstate [3] this summer with some friends who were visiting from Canada. From a distance it looked like a magical spot to cool off on a particularly sticky day. When we got there, however, we learned that the only place we were allowed to swim was a tiny cordoned off area that was further divided into even tinier subsections. As if that wasn't enough to drain any possible pleasure out of the experience, the lifeguards, who could pass for navy Seal trainees, were so authoritarian that a five-year-old girl was ordered out of the toddler section because her rubber duckie ring was not a "coast guard approved floatation device".

As we were driving away soon afterwards, in pursuit of a more hospitable watering hole, one of the Canadians remarked:

I guess that's what you get for living in such a litigious society.

And this is the problem, right? Because of the presumption that Americans never leave the safety of their own home without their personal injury lawyer's phone number on speed dial, we are forced to live in a society where excessive precautions are taken in most public spaces – and many private ones as well – to ensure that no accident or injury ever occurs. I mean, this is the country where you can spill hot coffee on yourself, sue the company that sold it to you for millions and, worse still, win.
Or so goes the narrative, anyway. The truth is that Americans don't sue that much at all. Seriously, who do you know who can afford to? But because the myth [4] has been so successfully propagated, Americans have to live with the consequences of excessive law suit avoidance that tramples on the one thing that is supposed to be truly sacred in this country – our liberty.