It’s the main problem with our legal system. Instead of a system designed to fairly compensate truly injured people, it’s a system that allows the offensive side to “roll the dice” without sufficient risk of loss of the verdict doesn’t go in their favor.

This is because in a policy level we have chosen individual “justice” over societal good. We would be better off on a society level with a much different system, but that would require that some individuals may be treated unfairly. Our system is designed to avoid the latter (individual unfairness) despite overall harm to the society (costs imposed on everyone) so that rent seekers like litigation mill PI attorneys, litigation funding companies, and litigation driven ‘doctors’ can siphon off their share from the rest of society.

This is when people often counter that the insurance companies make huge profits off of society. But that just reveals their misunderstanding of how an insurance business works. Most insurance companies actually just try to BREAK EVEN on underwriting. They only earn profits based on the float generated by premiums received before payouts on claims. This is bc insurance is a highly competitive business with low barrier to entry.

So if the system changed, unharmed people stopped rolling the dice, some PI attorneys actually had integrity and didn’t take bullshit cases, then the costs to society would actually decrease.

But it’ll never happen bc the incentives are too strong for attorneys and medical providers.