WASHINGTON, NOV 15: Around the same time dozens of legal eagles were winging their way to America's electoral hotspot, Richard L. Garcia of Brandenton, Florida, was suing the city police because a police officer failed to arrest him for drunken driving minutes before he crashed into a tree. Stopped by the police when he was weaving around in the wee hours, Garcia alleges that officers told him to drive home rather than taking him into custody despite his intoxication, which makes it their fault that he gotinto a serious accident minutes later. Welcome to litigious America, where people will sue for tripping on the sidewalk, falling off a toilet, eating food that burnt their tongue, and spilling hot coffee in their lap. Frivolous lawsuits have reached such absurd lengths that a Virginia prison inmate might have even drummed up a marvelous legal-philosophical conundrum: He sued himself for $5 million because he got drunk and violated his religious beliefs causing him to commit a crime. Of course, he didn't have $5 million so he wanted thestate to pick up the tab. (A recent lawsuit by an Indian who claimed his religious beliefs had been violated by a food chain that served him a beef burger instead of a ``beanburger'' didn't work; he modestly claimed air fare to cleanse his soul in the Ganges, but the judge wasn't impressed)Litigation is such a way of life that it has inspired books (The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit, by Walter Olson, Whiplash! America's Most Frivolous Lawsuits, by James Percelay), websites (overlawyerly.com, mlaw.com) and whole new vocabulary, including the all-time classic ``ambulance chasers''.It came as no surprise though that the moment the Florida electoral confusion looked like entering a legal quagmire, America's ever-alert legal buzzards were swooping down to the southern state looking for a piece of action. From all accounts the Presidential election is now securely trussed up in a welter of lawsuits involving the Bushies, the Gorists, stateauthorities, voters who got it wrong, voters who got it right, and sundry other groups.Much like India's political system that attracts a fair share of lawyers (Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Jinnah were all attorneys), American politics too islawyerly. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bob Dole, Richard Nixon have all practised law as have a host of present and past legislators (who, in fact, are called law-makers). Rules, regulations, and precedence (which Americans call ``case law'') course through the nation's political discourse. Despite the vast constituency of legal eagles, or perhaps because of the large contingent, Americans tend to rank lawyers with used-car salesmen. The image of lawyer as some sort of brilliant Perry Mason has been replaced by that of a crook out to make a fast buck at the expense of others, client included. In one instance, lawyers who represented flight attendants in a case involving secondhand smoke settled the case for $349 million. Of that, $300million went to establish a medical research foundation on the effcts of secondhand smoke, and $49 million went to lawyers' fees. The flight attendants got zilch. Although poll show a majority of Americans supportive of a fair and accurate ballot count even if it takes time (as opposed to an expeditious, inaccurateresult), the tangled legal skein is beginning to irk voters. Chat forums and discussion groups are urging both sides to abjure unending legal recourse, draw a line in Florida, and accept whatever verdict emerges from the third and final recount. ``Stop the division of our country, the destruction of the dignity and honor of the Office of the President, and set an example that though partially justified litigation is always a choice, it is not always the right one,'' one voter, evidently a Republican, urged on the newsgroup alt.politicsbushThe anti-litigants also mounted an online petition on a new website savethepresidency.com that urges the eventual loser of Florida not to pursue any further legal action, especially a revote. It may be too late. As of Wednesday morning, several lawsuits were boiling in America's political-legal cauldron * Democrats have sued to get Broward County to restart hand counting* Democrats have sued to get county officials in Palm beach to count ``dimpled chads'', partially indented ballots* Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris (A Republican) has gone to the state's top court seeking to stop hand counting of ballots, and aconsolidation of all lawsuits * America's ace litigator Alan Dershowitz landed in Florida to represent disenfranchised voters who he says come from all parties* Democrats have also sued to extend the deadline for hand countingAnd several more are in the office, including appeals to higher courts by either or both parties depending on whowins or loses in Florida. One respected former law-maker Senator Alan Simpson predicted that theelectoral logjam will go all the way to the US Supreme Court.
