"It all depends." The ever-pervasive element, the cause, is no longer just an "American get rich scheme"; but it is now strongly at work in the UK. Everyone is trying to make a quick buck out of the justice system and for the most part they are doing a good job. People constantly suing and winning huge sums of money in court with ridiculous cases have undermined the underlying goodness of lawsuits. Therefore, the potential for lawsuits to improve the economy has always been there; but his manipulation and blatant claims of greed have corrupted his once noble intentions to get people to examine the legitimacy of every claim. Companies continually churn out goods into the consumer market. However, with the advent of the process, strong pressure has been placed on companies to be more careful in terms of efficiency and above all safety when it comes to goods and services. If a customer believes they have been robbed of their money and/or is simply dissatisfied with what they paid, they have the right to file a lawsuit against the person responsible. Undoubtedly, such a case costs a significant amount of money and 90% of the time the defendant loses; thus, they incentivize companies to improve the quality or design of what they offer to the consumer market so as to avoid annoying and costly lawsuits. Lawsuits keep companies in line to prevent them from acting irresponsibly. From a leaking Mazda gas tank to an alcoholic doctor, the range of possible legal circumstances is never-ending. How does a company address such shortcomings? The answer is to solve them. This isn't easy and it isn't cheap. It is very expensive to protect people from such a multitude of hidden dangers and product defects, which sometimes make things not worth doing. For example, a pharmaceutical company tries to bring a new super-aspirin to market, but it must be tested for possible side effects; the bureaucracy reflects on the costs of carrying out such a process and decides whether it is really worth facing such an inconvenience given the expected return. The time and expense devoted to such an undertaking is daunting and discourages business (especially fairly new companies, which need to save money). To avoid small lawsuits, it is essential to have an insurance plan, which once again means companies are looking at another lump sum of money that could have been allocated elsewhere.