Frivolous lawsuits

INTRODUCTION

Courts of Justice have always been regarded as institutions where people can address their grievances in a peaceful manner . They have also been considered as efficient mechanisms for the dispensation of justice ' thus carrying out the maxim of social justice that those who are poor have much under the law . This maxim , however , has been interpreted in a rather obtuse manner by those who have sought to exploit the Justice system to further their own ends

Over the years , there have been many individuals who have sought to enrich themselves

through the filing of frivolous lawsuits . This is not to say of course that there are also a number of these cases which are meritorious (Weiss , 2005 . The lamentable fact , however , is that the number of these cases outnumber the meritorious ones and the media explosion that surrounds them have not only led to more of these cases but have also shaken the integrity of the Courts of Justice

This has led to the Tort Reform movement which seeks to cut down on the number of these so-called frivolous lawsuits (Bagley Savage 2006 ' This brief discourse will seek to elaborate more on this issue by presenting and contrasting two cases , Liebeck v McDonald 's Restaurants and Pearson v Chung . This will involve a brief discussion of the cases and an overview on Tort Law and its applicability to the said cases . Finally , this discussion will attempt to set certain judicial guidelines that can be followed in the dealing with...