Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis (Chicago Series in Law and Society) - Hardcover

William Haltom; Michael McCann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226314634 ISBN 13: 9780226314631

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2004

Synopsis

In recent years, stories of reckless lawyers and greedy citizens have given the legal system, and victims in general, a bad name. Many Americans have come to believe that we live in the land of the litigious, where frivolous lawsuits and absurdly high settlements reign.

Scholars have argued for years that this common view of the depraved ruin of our civil legal system is a myth, but their research and statistics rarely make the news. William Haltom and Michael McCann here persuasively show how popularized distorted understandings of tort litigation (or tort tales) have been perpetuated by the mass media and reform proponents. Distorting the Law lays bare how media coverage has sensationalized lawsuits and sympathetically portrayed corporate interests, supporting big business and reinforcing negative stereotypes of law practices.

Based on extensive interviews, nearly two decades of newspaper coverage, and in-depth studies of the McDonald's coffee case and tobacco litigation, Distorting the Law offers a compelling analysis of the presumed litigation crisis, the campaign for tort law reform, and the crucial role the media play in this process.

About this title

About the Author

William Haltom is professor in the Department of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound and the author ofReporting on the Courts. Michael McCann is the Gordon Hirabayashi Professor for the Advancement of Citizenship at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of several books, most recently the award-winningRights at Work.

Review

"This is an excellent study and should assume its rightful place in the pantheon of law and society studies. . . . In the end, the book becomes, for sympathetic readers, the academic equivalent of A Civil Action." (Richard L. Pacell, Jr. The Law and Politics Book Review 2004-09-01)

Winner of the 2005 Herbert Jacob Book Prize from the Law and Society Association (Herbert Jacob Book Prize 2005-01-01)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0226314634
• ISBN 13: 9780226314631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332