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Adversary Model of Litigation

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Adversary Model of Litigation
The adversarial model of litigation is the system of justice that we use in the United States. The adversary model relies on each advocate to represent their cause or party and ultimately a jury to come to a finding. Justice has been served when one advocate is able to convince the judge or jury that they are in the right. Our legal system was created in order to find the truth in injustices and restore justice. Over the years many people have found faults in our adversarial model of litigation as they believe the main goal of the legal system has gone astray. The system has gained criticism in which we will further discuss in this paper. Any legal system should stand to successfully find the truth in any injustice and bring upon punitive measures. In a society that has become infatuated with wealth and success while also becoming excessively greedy, it is not surprising that people will do anything to get ahead. Lawsuits are filed every single day even over the smallest altercation or incident. Our country has become more concerned with winning lawsuits and settlements in court and less concerned with our ability to settle altercations peacefully outside of court. Former Chief Justice, Warren E. Burger, made a statement about the courts explaining that “Americans are increasingly turning to the courts for relief from a range of personal distresses and anxieties”. Burger, who was an advocate of out of court mediation, was trying to prove that many people file unnecessary lawsuits and lawyers begin to fight to avoid the truth rather than to find it. The problem is that many lawyers have become more interested in deception in order to win rather than accepting the truth and consequences. It has become more favorable to settle disputes than to seek the whole truth. The legal system has also been critiqued as being incredibly slow. The entire process, which may in many cases be thorough, has a tendency to drag lawsuits out. Due to procedural rules and the grueling

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