Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

In Recent Years, Stories Of Reckless Lawyers And Greedy Citizens Have Given The Legal System, And Victims In General, A Bad Name. Many Americans Have Come To Believe That We Live In The Land Of The Litigious, Where Frivolous Lawsuits And Absurdly High Settlements Reign. Scholars Have Argued For Years That This Common View Of The Depraved Ruin Of Our Civil Legal System Is A Myth, But Their Research And Statistics Rarely Make The News. William Haltom And Michael Mccann Here Persuasively Show How Popularized Distorted Understandings Of Tort Litigation (or Tort Tales) Have Been Perpetuated By The Mass Media And Reform Proponents. Distorting The Law Lays Bare How Media Coverage Has Sensationalized Lawsuits And Sympathetically Portrayed Corporate Interests, Supporting Big Business And Reinforcing Negative Stereotypes Of Law Practices. Based On Extensive Interviews, Nearly Two Decades Of Newspaper Coverage, And In-depth Studies Of The Mcdonald's Coffee Case And Tobacco Litigation, Distorting The Law Offers A Compelling Analysis Of The Presumed Litigation Crisis, The Campaign For Tort Law Reform, And The Crucial Role The Media Play In This Process -- The Social Production Of Legal Knowledge -- Pop Torts : Tales Of Legal Degeneration And Moral Regeneration -- In Retort : Narratives Versus Numbers -- Atla Shrugged : Plaintiff's Lawyers Play Defense -- Full Tort Press : Media Coverage Of Civil Litigation -- Java Jive : Genealogy Of A Juridical Icon -- Smoke Signals From The Tobacco Wars -- Law Through The Looking Glass Of Mass Politics. William Haltom And Michael Mccann. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [307]-327) And Index. In recent years, stories of reckless lawyers and greedy citizens have given the legal system, and victims in general, a bad name. Many Americans have come to believe that we live in the land of the litigious, where frivolous lawsuits and absurdly high settlements reign. Scholars have argued for years that this common view of the depraved ruin of our civil legal system is a myth, but their research and statistics rarely make the news. William Haltom and Michael McCann here persuasively show how popularized distorted understandings of tort litigation (or tort tales) have been perpetuated by the mass media and reform proponents. Distorting the Law lays bare how media coverage has sensationalized lawsuits and sympathetically portrayed corporate interests, supporting big business and reinforcing negative stereotypes of law practices. Based on extensive interviews, nearly two decades of newspaper coverage, and in-depth studies of the McDonald's coffee case and tobacco litigation, Distorting the Law offers a compelling analysis of the presumed litigation crisis, the campaign for tort law reform, and the crucial role the media play in this process -- Provided by Publisher Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 1. The Social Production of Legal Knowledge......Page 14 Part One: Contesting Legal Realities......Page 44 2. Pop Torts: Tales of Legal Degeneration and Moral Regeneration......Page 46 3. In Retort: Narratives versus Numbers......Page 86 4. ATLA Shrugged: Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Play Defense......Page 124 Part Two: Reporting Legal Realities......Page 158 5. Full Tort Press: Media Coverage of Civil Litigation......Page 160 6. Java Jive: Genealogy of a Juridical Icon......Page 196 7. Smoke Signals from the Tobacco Wars......Page 240 8. Law through the Looking Glass of Mass Politics......Page 278 References......Page 320 Index......Page 342