So true. And the United States has 2x the number of civil cases per capita than the next most litigious country, The United Kingdom. Tort reform just isn’t a sexy campaign promise either.
Unusually high medical bills in the US are also probably a contributing factor. I’d be curious to see how often a civil suit is brought after a car accident in EU vs US.
Depends on the country of course (UK is probably closer to USA instead of the rest of EU with civil law), but in general that would very rarely result in a dispute that needs to be resolved in court. The mandatory liability insurance would cover the usual claims without a civil suit, and unusual claims are unlikely to succeed and expensive to pursue, so they aren't.
Vis the derogatory term "ambulance chasers" for personal injury lawyers.
via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fe...
While you rarely, if ever, see cases where losing parties have to pay millions - I personally haven't seen any like that - you can see people having to pay tens to lower hundred thousand $ in legal fees.
That can be a substantial sum for regular people, and those circumstances happen when the other party has hired in high-$$$ lawyers, and the case goes on for a while. Especially if there's multiple appeals.
So there's always the risk of that.
If you want to sue a big company for treating you poorly, you risk a very high price of you lose.