Justice for a Few More
At times, rough justice beats perfect justice. Getting a little carried away with ideals of perfect justice, America has so-thickly armored its legal system with protective rules and procedures that the system, in practical application, has become completely impenetrable to the common citizen.
Yes, the system dangles the promise of perfect justice – but don’t get too carried away about it; unless you’re better off than the rest of us, navigating all the rules and procedures necessary to reach that theoretical perfection will cost too much and take too long; you can’t afford the ticket of admission to the system. The things that are supposed to ensure justice – like fussy procedural and evidentiary rules – jack up the complexity and costs of the legal system so much that most Americans, and most Utahns, have no meaningful shot at justice through the legal system.
With that in mind, I passed HB 124 (Small Claims Court Jurisdiction Amendments) in 2003, to increase the jurisdictional amount in small claims court to $7,500 and, as soon as the Supreme Court crafts implementing rules, to make it so that non-lawyers can help individuals in that setting (which the legislature likely will do for the Court, if it does not get the rules in place this year).
Today, I passed 1 SHB 235 (Insurance Arbitration Amendments) out of the House Judiciary committee. It deals with quicker resolution of injuries in motor vehicle accidents. When insurance is involved, an injured party can demand that the matter be arbitrated, if he agrees to cap his recovery at $25,000. This could be fast and effective – if the arbitration decisions are not appealed too often. To discourage appeals, the appealing party has to improve his position by 20% on appeal; if he doesn’t, he owes the other party her costs.
I’m excited about the experiment proposed by 1 SHB 235, and I’m very grateful for the many representatives of insurance companies and plaintiffs’ and defendants’ counsel who have given many hours over the past year to work on this issue. Because of their efforts, I think the system will improve in this area for all sides and for the people of Utah.
Yes, the system dangles the promise of perfect justice – but don’t get too carried away about it; unless you’re better off than the rest of us, navigating all the rules and procedures necessary to reach that theoretical perfection will cost too much and take too long; you can’t afford the ticket of admission to the system. The things that are supposed to ensure justice – like fussy procedural and evidentiary rules – jack up the complexity and costs of the legal system so much that most Americans, and most Utahns, have no meaningful shot at justice through the legal system.
With that in mind, I passed HB 124 (Small Claims Court Jurisdiction Amendments) in 2003, to increase the jurisdictional amount in small claims court to $7,500 and, as soon as the Supreme Court crafts implementing rules, to make it so that non-lawyers can help individuals in that setting (which the legislature likely will do for the Court, if it does not get the rules in place this year).
Today, I passed 1 SHB 235 (Insurance Arbitration Amendments) out of the House Judiciary committee. It deals with quicker resolution of injuries in motor vehicle accidents. When insurance is involved, an injured party can demand that the matter be arbitrated, if he agrees to cap his recovery at $25,000. This could be fast and effective – if the arbitration decisions are not appealed too often. To discourage appeals, the appealing party has to improve his position by 20% on appeal; if he doesn’t, he owes the other party her costs.
I’m excited about the experiment proposed by 1 SHB 235, and I’m very grateful for the many representatives of insurance companies and plaintiffs’ and defendants’ counsel who have given many hours over the past year to work on this issue. Because of their efforts, I think the system will improve in this area for all sides and for the people of Utah.
posted by steve u. at 2/04/2005
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1 Comments:
Nice work. I think mediation also provides a way to increase access to the justice system while holding costs down. A lot of stuff ends up in court just because the parties can't or won't communicate.
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