Don’t frivolous lawsuits waste a great deal of time and money for the court and for defendants?

No.

There are two legal mechanisms that quickly and inexpensively resolve frivolous lawsuits. The truly frivolous lawsuits are often “thrown out of court” when the defendant files a motion to dismiss. If that fails, a defendant may still file a motion for summary judgment, which requires the plaintiff to present actual evidence that he or she “has a case” and that there are no laws that prevent the plaintiff from winning.

Motions for summary judgment are decided by judges – not juries - so any lawsuit that makes it past a summary judgment has some merit. Motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment quickly and inexpensively weed out lawsuits that don’t have any merit. And often, a plaintiff on the losing end of either motion is ordered by the court to pay the defendant’s legal fees, thus discouraging people from filing frivolous suits in the first place.

Learn more about summary judgments and frivolous lawsuits here.

Comments

[Dean]

the frivolous lawsuits that this comment is speaking of are the ones that aren't thrown out of court. There are so many lawyers in the judicial system today that most of these frivolous cases DO find representation. Once that happens, it takes the courts, the plaintiff, and the defendent so much time just to see if the case should be thrown out or not (i.e.-countless meetings between parties, references to damage qualifications, general busy work that distracts from the actual work of the defendent). Also, a plaintiff on the losing end of a motion is sometimes ordered to pay legal fees, but is generally not ordered to by the lawyer! Thus the "I don't get paid till you get paid" rhetoric that promotes so many frivolous lawsuits.