State Bar & Bar Associations,
Law Practice,
Judges and Judiciary
Feb. 23, 2022
The Cost of Process
Our civil justice system comes at a very high cost. Most of us lawyers and judges don’t think much about it. It’s the way things are; like the ocean in which fish swim.
Curtis E.A. Karnow
Judge (ret.)
San Francisco County Superior Court
Judge Karnow is author of "Litigation in Practice" (2017) and current co-author of Weil & Brown et al., "California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial" (Rutter).
Our civil justice system comes at a very high cost. Most of us lawyers and judges don't think much about it. It's the way things are; like the ocean in which fish swim.
The system is so complicated that litigants need counsel, but few can afford that. For many routine tort and contract cases where there's no attorney fees clause, the courts are closed. True, if the estimated recovery is high enough, some plaintiffs might find a lawyer will...
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