Distorting the Law

[BOOK]

Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis takes a look at litigation in the United States -- and how it is portrayed by the media. The publisher's description summarizes:

Scholars have argued for years that this common view of the depraved ruin of our civil legal system is a myth, but their research and statistics rarely make the news. William Haltom and Michael McCann here persuasively show how popularized distorted understandings of tort litigation (or tort tales) have been perpetuated by the mass media and reform proponents. Distorting the Law lays bare how media coverage has sensationalized lawsuits and sympathetically portrayed corporate interests, supporting big business and reinforcing negative stereotypes of law practices.

Note that one of the authors, Michael McCann, is the Gordon Hirabayashi Professor for the Advancement of Citizenship here at the University of Washington and has an adjunct appointment in the School of Law.

Categories: books, tort-reform, press, UW, McCann