It’s crap like this that makes me think there’s a better way. If you bring a civil suit, like this one, and lose, you have to pay the legal and related fees of the defense. Wonder what that would do to frivolous lawsuits in the US.
That is (or was) the British rule. I don’t know how it worked out for them.
The high cost of hurt feelings. But the feelings MOST hurt, are those of whom believed that the apparatus could actually have been a real bomb trigger mechanism, and the kid was playing on that.
Cry “Wolf!” once too often, and nobody believes.
The general rule (American) is that each party pays its own costs, while the English rule is the opposite.
But a defendant/respondent can always ask for its fees if the claim is clearly frivolous.
And they definitely should here.
Whoever thought the federal government would sue states for trying to protect themselves from invasion?
Obama has corrupted the American gestalt to this point—a locality is facing a claim for 15 million because it tried to protect its students from an apparent bomb.