(This is one of a weekly series of posts entitled “A Centrist’s Platform”. The complete collection of Centrist’s Platform posts is available on a single page, or via a special RSS feed.)
Last week, I expressed concerns about the politicization in the identification of judges and attorneys general, and pondered about the potential drag on society from political motivations trumping objective justice.
Another area of the judicial system that I worry about is just how overloaded the entire system seems to be, and how slowly the wheels of justice move.
This is a subject I have a personal interest in, thanks to what my family has been through in the past several years, after my wife was disabled in a car accident.
For example, it took just shy of 3 years for Social Security disability payments to start up. Two thirds of that time was just spent waiting, for my wife’s case to move up through a very long queue on the docket, before it could be reviewed by an Administrative law Judge.
Then there’s the lawsuit associated with the accident itself. We’re scheduled to go to finally go trial this October, 6½ years after the accident. True, our case is a little unusual, but the slowness with which the wheels of justice have turned has been remarkable.
Tort reform is a popular subject for those of us in the insurance industry to prattle on about, when talking about what’s wrong with the country. And, while I do share many of my colleagues’ concerns about excessive awards, jurisdictions in which rulings tend to be biased against industry, and the degree of influence trial lawyers associations seem to have… I wonder if a decent part of the problem is structural.
Considering the speed with which the world moves today, shouldn’t we be attempting an objective look to the mechanics with which the legal system operates?
Yes, easing the drag caused by the presence of some frivolous lawsuits on the docket would help “real” cases move forward faster, but surely we have enough creativity in this country to look at how the legal system can be made to operate more efficiently, without significantly impairing the prospects of fairness for all parties involved.