There are indeed problems with the legal system. I believe that many of the fundamental causes come from outside the legal system and are due to expectations that the public has historically placed on the system. So although we can improve things by making changes in legal and other institutions, major improvements may depend on our beliefs about proper ways to handle problems. Kagan argues that this is because Europeans have generally believed that large government bureaucracies should take care of many regulatory and social welfare issues. In contrast, many Americans believe that these are matters of individual responsibility that should be handled through litigation when there are problems.
Health care is an excellent example of the difference in political philosophy and structure.
Stanford legal historian Lawrence Friedman maintains that fantastic improvements in technology in recent decades have led us to believe that we have greater control in life so that when things go awry, we are more likely to attribute blame and expect compensation. More law, litigation, and lawyers are the logical results of the political and cultural beliefs that Friedman and Kagan describe. Nonetheless, there are still things we can do to improve legal institutions. All of the following suggestions have been tried and can be made to work. The main thing needed is the will to implement them widely and wisely.