I’m an attorney that works exclusively in the area of helping people be immune from frivolous lawsuits, Asset Protection. As such my firm tracks these issues closely and what we have always seen and continue to see now is that in times of crisis lawsuits (and threats of lawsuits resulting in settlements) do actually increase as people look for alternate sources of income. This rise is accompanied by increased personal injury law advertising, more bogus claims of every type including personal injury, employment discrimination and harassment and we are even starting to hear about an increase in staged accidents in major urban areas. God forbid you have to lay someone off due to present economic realities. To you it will be business, to the person laid off it will be personal and there are plenty of attorneys out there looking for business, even contingency business. I’ve warned all our thousands of MD clients to do some serious house keeping and update all employee manuals, insurance polices and procedures, as the risk is much higher now than in times of prosperity. In some cases it will be greed that drives the suits, in others it will be necessity,

I was wondering about this too. I have lost my job due to the "worldwide economic crises" as have millions of others. I am an expert in my field and was fairly compensated at around 100K per year. It took me 20+ years to get there.

Now I am out of a job and my investments have been slaughtered on top of that. I estimate that I have been damaged to the tune of 500K. Many others in my family and around the world have lost much more. Economic warfare has been persecuted on the average hardworking citizen.

Why hasn't anyone started a lawsuit on behalf of myself and millions of others like me? Why would that be considered frivilous?

Instead we are rewarding the criminals with bailouts that will place additional economic hardship on us all for generations to come.

I am at the point where my anger has disabled me.
I am on the precipice looking down at my financial destruction while the criminals that caused this and profited wildly from their frauds and gambling schemes (30-1 odds that housing will rise to infinity and beyond)are laughing all the way to the bank. Heck, the bigger the fraud the bigger the bonus check too!

This country has become a cesspool of greed and rewards incompetence and criminal behavior. Why shouldn't I start a class action lawsuit and claim disabilty? Who has been held accountable for their actions? The Banks who made those bets and the companies who "insured" them should be forced to pay back the trillions they have stolen from us.

I look forward to your comments and opinions.

Gentlemen - first thanks for you thoughtful and civilized questions and responses. I in no way infer that all suits are bad - just that lawsuits as a tool, are continually misused as an income source by both plaintiffs and those that represent them.

As an attorney I see great value in the legal system as a tool to redress harm and provide some form of equitable justice. The author asked the question, "Is the financial crisis turning consumers into a bunch of whiners who want something for nothing?" Our experience says YES, and that many of them were already in that position, now they feel even more justified in their questionable actions.

How do we stop this? By implementing legal tools that put Assets out of the reach of predators in a safe legal and tax neutral way before the crisis arises. We limit the collectibles of those we serve to limits of the insurance in place so that plaintiffs are not tempted to reach over that amount for the client's personal assets.

It's amazing how settlement within the policy limits becomes quickly "equitable and acceptable" when it is discovered that there is nothing else to take.