Common Good, a new body led by Covington vice-chairman Philip Howard, is aiming to kill off the claim culture in the US. Jon Robins asks: is this public spirit, or just self-interest? . . .[W]hen The Lawyer spoke to Howard, it was a big day for the group. It has such luminaries as former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and Senator George McGovern on its board. Today another political heavyweight, Senator Mike Enzi, was to introduce legislation geared towards reducing medical malpractice litigation by allowing states to Spilot [?] new ways to compensate patients for doctors' errors. It is legislation backed by Common Good.
This long article from the UK's The Lawyer.com is quite interesting, noting both how the current system is perpetuated by the huge political contributions of plaintiffs' lawyers, and how the problem doesn't seem to exist in Britain.
UPDATE: Here's an article about a landmark British case denying recovery to "John Tomlinson, who was paralysed in May 1995 when he ignored warning signs and dived into a lake at Brereton Heath Country Park, Cheshire. Mr Tomlinson sued Congleton borough council and Cheshire county council for failing to prevent him from diving in the lake." (via Overlawyered.com)