April 17, 2006
Frivolous Laws
Judges in Wisconsin can deal handily with frivolous law suits:
Doyle said in a veto message the frivolous claims bill would strip judges of their discretion in dealing with such lawsuits. Current law already allows judges to sanction people who bring frivolous cases, including making them pay expenses and attorney fees, Doyle said.So just why didn't Governor Doyle veto the apparently unnecessary law banning people from suing restaurants for making them fat? Such suits are easily classified as frivolous and it seems that plaintiffs and attorneys should quickly learn their lesson without the need for another law on the books.
"He thinks it's certainly reasonable to have a law that you just can't sue a restaurant because you're overweight," Leistikow said. "He doesn't think we should have those kinds of lawsuits here."The bill creates an exemption for the food industry from civil claims related to weight gain, obesity or health conditions caused by eating food.
Nope, no apparent reason not to veto. As noted in the opening Wisconsin judges have the tools to deal with frivoloous suits. This is simply another unnecessary law, a type of law that legislatures should not be in the habit of passing because the next time they just might make some big governement entity or corporate crony immune from lawsuits that are not at all frivolous.
Posted by Steve on April 17, 2006
