A former colleague of mine in the US told me, what I thought was, a sad story. She is originally from Spain and lives in an affluent neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and 2 kids, who are both under 10 years of age and attend local schools. My friend was very surprised when one of her children received an invitation to a birthday party by one of her classmates. It wasn’t just your average invitation card featuring balloons and a cake; the card was accompanied by a letter to be signed by my friend. The letter that all the parents who wanted their kids to attend this birthday party had to sign, was basically a disclaimer that stated that the parents who organised the party are not responsible for any accidents or other mishaps that might happen at the party.
Why all this effort? It’s just a kid’s birthday party and not a bungee jumping competition we are talking about here after all!
Undoubtedly, the organisers were scared of being sued by one of the parents in case anything unforeseen might happen at the event (one of the children breaking an arm while playing hide and seek say). Isn’t it a sad state of affairs, if you have to think about these kinds of things when throwing a birthday party for your child?
As a European, I found the American suing culture in general very difficult to get used to when I lived there for a year. Almost half the local phone book is filled with ads for lawyers of all different kinds and they heavily advertise on TV as well. In America, everybody can sue anybody for anything and this reflected in the number of lawyers. Just look at how many lawyers the US has compared to other developed nations; the difference is staggering:
Japan 23,000
France 41,000
Germany 121,420
United Kingdom 119,000
United States 1,000,000
1 million lawyers who all need something to do…
