[nostrademons]

There's a systemic problem here, independent of the Thiel/Bollinger/Gawker case.

"Equality before the law" is supposed to be a fundamental value in America and most Western common-law countries. It's the underpinning behind much of our economic system, which is based on the idea that everybody's welfare is improved if people can independently make contracts with each other. If it turns out that peoples' welfare is not improved, they can sue for damages, and the court system will right the externality.

This assumption does not hold when the vast majority of people harmed cannot afford to sue.

Your last paragraph is a good illustration of the problem, and I think that's the point the grandparent post was making. In this case, it may've been a good thing for justice that Gawker pissed off the wrong billionaire. But it's a terrible system where only the organizations that piss off billionaires get slapped, and the only way to achieve justice is to have a billionaire on your side.

Unfortunately I don't really know of a solution to this. We've already tried a bunch, with public defenders and Miranda rights and continent legal fees and class action lawsuits and pro bono work. But the cost of a court case keeps spiraling upwards, and it's soon reaching the level where only big corporations and wealthy individuals can afford them. And non-capitalist countries are even worse off: in many of them, you need a personal connection to a powerful person to get a fair judgment.

[clairity]

> Unfortunately I don't really know of a solution to this.

the solution is to take the economic incentives out of lawsuits (the legal industry is a pure economic cost, so an added perk is a more productive economy). some random ideas:

  * make public law schools free and disband the various bar associations (increase competition/lower barriers to entry)
  * make people file lawsuits within 3 months of injury (lower the statute of limitations)
  * limit the length of lawsuits to 3 months total (limits legal costs)
  * make judges prefer non-monetary compensation (like volunteer work).

[natecavanaugh]

> make people file lawsuits within 3 months of injury (lower the statute of limitations)

My issue with this is, 3 months from actual harm, or realization of harm? There just seem to be a lot of cases where harm does not show themselves immediately, but may take a few years to appear.

[clairity]

yes, there's unlikely a perfect solution, especially not one that comes out of 5 minutes of musing on it.

injuries involving bodily harm (assault, murder, etc.) might require more time, and financial crimes might take years to uncover, as you point out. but the underlying idea would be to make people act on injury quickly so that justice is delivered while memories and evidence are fresh (lowering costs) and deterrence is more immmediate and visible.

[emodendroket]

What country even exists anymore that could really be called non-capitalist? Maybe North Korea or Cuba? That's about all the ones I can think of.