The Observation Deck

Thanks much for the excellent further information Brian. I understand better now. I feel like the proof of collusion (probably not the right legal term) between city hall and ccf has been abundant. But they keep winning the cases somehow.

But Winning Is Not Everything

When a citizen or a group of citizens files a lawsuit against any large institution, like a city or a corporation, they are engaged in an effort that is highly asymmetric regardless of how good the merits of their case might be.

The asymmetry arises from several factors:

1. Cost. Litigation of good, but difficult, cases costs both time and money. Even volunteer attorneys are not "free". Their time commitment has value. Depositions and experts are actual real costs that can run to tens of thousands of dollars, even with volunteer legal counsel.

2. Access. Because of significant costs associated with litigation, ordinary citizen no longer have access to the judiciary, because they do not have the financial wherewithal to sustain their cases.

3. Bias. Courts are afflicted with a variety of internal structural biases that tend to work against cases brought by citizens or individuals. Most courts have a general bias in favor of delay and this, in most cases, works in favor of the defense. Courts have a structural bias related to workload. Criminal cases take precedence over civil matters. This list gets complicated and boring. I will end it here.