So Sue Me

The article "So Sue Me" can be found, along with many others, in Bill Bryson's book I'm a Stranger Here Myself. In this article he discusses that a lot of Americans try to find any reason they can to try to sue a person or company. He starts out by giving an example of what one of his friends in Britain went through. America sent the lead attorney and two assistant's from a case in America to Britain to talk to him just so they could charge the client more. He then goes on by telling us we have almost 800,000 lawyers, 300 for every 100,000 citizens while Britain has 82 and Japan has 11. He goes on to say that you can not sit down and watch television for 30 minutes with out seeing a commercial about a lawyer, which is completely true. He also incorporates a bunch of examples of how people got away with suing a company over stupid things such as parents trying to sue a high school baseball coach for benching their son claiming mental anguish and humiliation. He also talks about how we are paying more for all the things we buy because that company needs to make up for being sued. He gave examples of cars, football helmets, heart pacemakers, and even haircuts. In this article he is basically just stating that Americans love money and will try anything to get some even if it means taking it from an innocent company over something stupid or simple. This is why so many company's are spending money on settlements because its cheaper than being sued. He then goes on to say that "Allied with the idea that lawsuits are a quick way to a fortune, whether deserved or not, is the interesting and uniquely American notion that no matter what happens, someone else must be responsible" (Bryson 204).