“Americans are not losing their minds, but they are afraid of using their minds. They are afraid to exercise judgment — afraid of being sued,” observes George Will. And he gives examples:

[…] The early 20th century playground movement aimed to acquaint children with mild risks. In 1917, a movement leader said: ‘It is reasonably evident that if a boy climbs on a swing frame and falls off, the school board is no more responsible for his action than if he climbed into a tree or upon the school building and falls. There can be no more reason for taking out play equipment on account of such an accident than there would be for the removal of the trees or the school building.’

Today, New York City cuts branches off trees so children will not be tempted to climb.

Today, when a patient complains of a headache, a doctor, even when knowing that an aspirin is almost certainly the right treatment, may nevertheless order an expensive CAT-scan. You cannot be too careful in a country in which six Mississippians have been awarded $150 million not because they are sick, but because they fear that they someday may become sick from asbestos-related illnesses.

Michael Freedman reports in Forbes magazine that 42 percent of obstetricians are leaving the Las Vegas area now that 76 percent of that city’s obstetricians have been sued – 40 percent of them three or more times. Pharmaceutical companies are limiting research on ‘orphan drugs’ that treat serious but rare diseases because tort liability is so disproportionate to possible return on investment.

[…] A Delaware River canoe rental company is found liable on the theory that it should have stationed lifeguards along miles of river bank.

After a church was sued — unsuccessfully — because a parishioner committed suicide, many churches began discouraging counseling by ministers. When any harmful event can give rise to a lawsuit, the result is ‘law a la carte,’ changeable from jury to jury.

The cost of this — in money, health, lives, self-government and individual liberty — is staggering.

Indeed. Victimhood cultures produce generous juries. And aggressive lawyers are more than happy to take advantage of a soft mark.

The solution, Will argues, lies with our willingness to make tough, common sense legal judgments. And to that end, he points us toward “Common Good, an organization ‘to lead a new legal revolution to restore human judgment and values at every level of society.'”

I could do without the “values” thing, but restoring human judgment (whatever that means) sounds good to me, so long as it involves a healthy dose of promoting personal responsibility. Courts shouldn’t even be hearing half of these liability suits.

No water in the desert? Then don’t chance sneaking across the border. Or if you prefer: bring a canteen, ’cause you won’t be bringing a lawsuit anytime soon…

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