The newspapers are replete with stories about “frivolous lawsuits“. The law protects against the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Therefore, the concept is just a publicity campaign by insurance companies and others who have little sympathy for individuals injured as a result of the negligence of large corporations and others. The law recognizes that if you sue somebody without any cause and maliciously, you can be held responsible for the injury caused by filing that lawsuit. However, a person is not responsible maliciously filing a lawsuit if the person acted in good faith on the advice of his lawyer. The lawyer is ethically bound not to file cases in bad faith, not only under the ethics rules, but under the rules that govern that the filing of lawsuits in general. Any lawyer found to have filed not only a lawsuit but any piece of paper in court that lacks a good faith basis can suffer numerous penalties, including disbarment.
