The really frivolious lawsuits
I am happy to see that Glenn Reynolds, who unlike me is a real expert at law, is able to explain my position on the tobacco lawsuits very well:
The real problem, in my opinion, isn't garden-variety frivolous lawsuits, but the use of the tort system to end-run the regulatory process, as in tobacco -- and as has been attempted with firearms and fast food. Doing that is an effort by people in the government to subcontract the legislation process to private interests, without democratic safeguards. I think it is unfortunate that people have been distracted from this concern by bogus stories of slip-and-fall chicanery.
Exactly. If tobacco should be banned, the parliaments and congresses of the world could have done it. Countries have permitted the production of tobacco despite evidence of it being harmful, and in most cases, made huge profits from it by taxing it. The lawsuits is a way to avoid taking the political responsibility for anti-tobacco legislation by moving it outside democratic control.
2:03:42 AM 
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