Families across the country are struggling with rising living costs that are usually blamed on inflation or housing, but a major and often overlooked driver is lawsuit abuse. Earlier this week, Cotati, CA City Manager Damien O’Bird described what many local governments and consumers are experiencing firsthand: “a consistent pattern of legal system abuse.” Laws that make it easier to pursue outsized lawsuit awards have fueled a system that prioritizes volume and payouts over fairness. And the consequences don’t stop in courtrooms. They show up in household budgets.

O’Bird noted that lawsuit abuse has been building for years, driven by legal rules that enable “big, big awards” and encourage aggressive litigation strategies. The result is predictable: more lawsuits, higher settlements, and rising legal costs. As O’Bird put it, the system now produces “higher volume, higher settlement, increased litigation costs, more frivolous claims, and ultimately higher premiums.”

One of O’Bird’s most telling observations came not from a policy report, but from a drive up the freeway toward Lake Tahoe. “I remember a time when you go up the freeway and on the billboards, you see all sorts of different things advertised,” he said. “And now it’s almost exclusively … litigation.”

That change reflects a legal system increasingly designed around recruiting plaintiffs at scale. When lawsuit advertising dominates highway billboards, it’s a sign that volume — not justice — is the lawyers’ business model. More ads lead to more claims, and more claims drive up costs across the economy.

“There’s a lot of talk nationally about the cost of living,” O’Bird said. “And this is a big part of it. It drives into everything that we do.”

If California’s leaders are serious about lowering costs and protecting families, they need to confront lawsuit abuse head-on. Because the price of an unbalanced legal system isn’t just measured in legal fees. It’s measured in higher bills, higher premiums, and a higher cost of living for everyone.