The 2005 winner of the Herbert Jacob Book Prize of the Law & Society Association and of the C. Herman Pritchett Award of the American Political Science Association, this book shows how stories that so often represent civil law in the minds of ordinary Americans are shaped by tort reform and by news media. Advocates of tort reform craft tort tales from news narratives; journalists and entertainers in turn disseminate the tort tales and especially the morals of those stories to mass audiences. As a result of this reciprocating process, many Americans believe that individual responsibility has declined, that courtrooms host lotteries that pay huge dividends to undeserving litigants, that litigiousness is epidemic, and that plaintiffs’ attorneys are picking “deep pockets” wherever they find them. These beliefs and other lessons prominent in ordinary stories about the law become common knowledge that resists better information. Since reformers and reporters alike mold their narratives to suit such ideals as individualism and personal responsibility, “what everybody knows” about the civil law system constructs a powerful case for reform of legal relations among Americans. Thus do the stories Americans tell one another about law become the dominant, partly true but partly distorted image of “the law” in America.
Winner -- the 2005 C. Herman Pritchett Award* of the American Political Science Association!
Winner -- the 2005 Herbert Jacob Book Prize** of the Law & Society Association!
Michael McCann and William Haltom created and maintain www.lawslore.info to complement and to extend their book, Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis [see the box at right]. You should see above five buttons that will transport you to components of this website.
Here you will find information about each chapter and bibliographic assistance for the book.
“DATA” archives data and tables provides additional features not in that book.
If the book sent you to this site regarding data, look here first.
If you would know more about the "Psychic CAT Scan" or the "Burglar through the Skylight" or the "McDonald’s Coffee Lady" or other common tales about civil litigation, click on this button.
Send us requests for information about tort tales or legal urban legends.
“ARGOT & JARGON” defines key legal and intellectual terms.
We tried to be clear in the book, but we can be even clearer here.
“DIRECTORY” advises readers about resources related to civil litigation.
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* The Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association sponsors the C. Herman Pritchett Award. That annual award singles out the best book(s) concerning law or courts or closely related matters. The book(s) must have been written by political scientist(s) and must have been published in the year immediately previous. Please see http://www.apsanet.org/section_305.cfm for more.
** An annual award for books published in the previous calendar year (thus, the 2005 award honors a book published in 2004), the Herbert Jacob Book Prize may go to a book from any field or approach except socio-legal history. A committee drawn from the Law and Society Association determines the winner. The Law and Society Association is an interdisciplinary, international group of scholars interested in phenomena related to norms, customs, and especially laws. For more details, see http://www.lawandsociety.org/.
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