In general, that is how things have played out in Louisiana and Alabama, which don't have the same kind of litigious environment as Mississippi does.

Nevertheless, the AMA believes the caps may alleviate what is often perceived as an excessively litigious environment for many doctors.

This would require significant redesign to meet modern safety standards, however, and expert amusement-ride consultants wonder whether this would be possible in a modern litigious environment.

The increasingly litigious environment resulted in very high risk management and legal costs as a result of the Animal House like atmosphere of many chapters over the past decade.

"We are in a very litigious environment, and there have been a number of court decisions that have drastically increased the cost of lawsuits," Mr. Grubb said.

Dr. Goldberg's words are a sad commentary on what we are doing to our children in the current overprotective, litigious environment in which we live.

Businesses are operating in an increasingly litigious environment where people are more inclined to seek compensation.

Whether it's community groups, environmental groups or property-rights people, it remains a litigious environment.

Ms. Rasmussen agreed that doctors were reluctant to treat women having trouble with implants because, she said, "these are not happy campers and that makes for an extremely litigious environment."

And because this is a more litigious environment, people want to document everything and there are legal requirements stipulating how long different types of documents must be saved.