You Are a Public Prosecutor: How Civil Cases Enforce the Law

AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley

Many of us have been socialized to think of the word “lawsuit” as dirty, or a petty spat between individuals. It could be a couple bickering over dinette sets, neighbors harassing each other over trees, or a fender bender.

But who stands up to insurance companies when they greedily mistreat their customers? 

Who stops a manufacturer from continuing to produce and sell a faulty vehicle that kills people? 

Who holds the government accountable when it endangers drivers with bad roads, or when police violently retaliate against free speech?

It’s not prosecutors. The criminal justice system is extremely limited in what conduct it addresses. It is also limited by system constraints: time, financial resources, priorities, and politics of local government.

The issues above are often not addressed at all, much less resolved, in the criminal justice system.

So who prosecutes these cases? You do. The civil justice system does.

We are preparing a lawsuit on behalf of a dozen peaceful protesters, and eventually dozens more, to hold the Seattle Police Department accountable for unconstitutional police violence against protesters of… unconstitutional police violence. And recently the City of Seattle tried to ring alarm bells over its insurance situation and ability to pay legal claims. While the alarm is over-blown if not outright misleading, it raises a better question: why not just stop breaking the law?

Columnist and Yale Law professor Stephen L. Carter puts it this way regarding the Breonna Taylor case:

Here’s the right question to ask about the $12 million settlement that Louisville, Kentucky, has agreed to pay to settle the lawsuit stemming from the death of Breonna Taylor: Will this deal reduce the chances of the same thing happening again?

Like the criminal justice system, one purpose of the civil justice system is to deter misconduct. The chief goal of many of our clients is to assure that “nothing like this ever happens again.” They are Public Proscutors, enforcing the law and protecting the public.

As Professor Carter explains, “The government responds to incentives just like any other institution. Make the damages big enough, and change is bound to come. “