Distorting the Law : Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis Paperback / softback
by William Haltom, Michael McCann
Part of the Chicago Series in Law and Society series
Paperback / softback
- Information
Description
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.
Information
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Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:332 pages
- Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
- Publication Date:01/10/2004
- Category:
- ISBN:9780226314648
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:332 pages
- Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
- Publication Date:01/10/2004
- Category:
- ISBN:9780226314648