Opinion ID: 831187
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: growth of litigation

Text: There can also be little denying Judge BANDSTRA'S observation that [a]s this case amply demonstrates, ours is an extremely and increasingly litigious society. [61] Id. at 160, 760 N.W.2d 641. Children have routinely jumped off playground slides for generations; lawsuits seeking to impose damages on someone else for resulting injuries are only a recent phenomenon. Id. at 160 n. 2, 760 N.W.2d 641. As a result of trends toward increasing litigation in modern society, 48 jurisdictions adopted tort reform legislation between 1985 and 1988. Sanders & Joyce, Off to the races: The 1980s tort crisis and the law reform process, 27 Hous. L. R. 207, 220-222 (1990). Even in 1992 it was stated: Few would dispute the proposition that America has become a litigious society and that the preferred method for resolving disputes and achieving social reform is to file lawsuits. In 1989, close to eighteen million new civil cases were filed in state and federal courts, amounting to one lawsuit for every ten adults. In the federal courts alone, the number of lawsuits filed each year has more than quadrupled in the last thirty years from approximately 51,000 in 1960 to almost 218,000 in 1990. [Quayle, Civil justice reform, 41 Am. U. L. R. 559, 560 (1992).] [62] Indeed, this Court has previously expressed concern over the effect of increased litigation on recreational activities and identified clear evidence that litigation can exact a toll on what most would consider valuable social activities. Ritchie-Gamester, 461 Mich. at 92 n. 13, 597 N.W.2d 517. I agree with Ritchie-Gamester that our duty is to adopt common-law rules that do not create destructive levels of litigation that will inhibit important social activity. Id. at 93 n. 13, 597 N.W.2d 517. [63] Unfortunately, the concern expressed in Ritchie-Gamester is not shared by a majority of justices here. Indeed, their decision to expressly preclude the enforceability of parental preinjury waivers should be seen for what it is: an anti-tort-reform measure that will exact a heavy toll upon valuable social activities. Their decision will encourage the kind of modern litigation that has led to the closing of playgrounds for fear of a child being injured and a lawsuit being filed. See, e.g., Messina v. Dist. of Columbia, 663 A.2d 535, 538 (D.C., 1995) (holding that expert testimony was necessary to establish the standard of care for installation of cushioning under the monkey bars on a playground). [64] The more litigious our society becomes, the more each injured child becomes a potential plaintiff in a lawsuit and the more sports and recreational providers see the need to obtain waivers in order to avoid lawsuits and remain in business. Thus, I believe that our society's overall increase in litigiousness over recent generations constitutes a substantial change in society's customary practice that supplies an additional reason for this Court to clarify that our common law allows for the enforceability of parental preinjury waivers. A society in which monkey bars and other traditional playground equipment disappear, and in which sports such as dodge ball attract the scrutiny of the bench and bar, may be a society in which there is less risk of injury, but it is also a society in which the nature of childhood, and the responsibilities of parenthood, are defined very differently than they have by past generations of Americans. Because I see no evidence that community views have altered in this regard, I would maintain the genuine common law in this stateone in which parental preinjury waivers are an ordinary part of the family experiencenot the distorted common law articulated by a majority here.