Blood is thicker than water (except when a lawsuit is involved)

New Jersey teen Rachael Canning made national news when she filed a lawsuit against her parents demanding they pay her outstanding tuition bills and pay her $654 per week for living expenses.

The case will likely be dismissed at some point but it does make one wonder how we got to a point in our society when a child has chosen to use the court system to resolve a family dispute.

Parents and children have always had financial disagreements. Kids want all of the benefits of their parents’ financial resources with none of the responsibilities while parents usually have some strings attached to their generosity to the children. There is nothing new to the nature of the dispute between Rachael and her parents. What is new is that the conflict escalated to the point that Racheal turned to the courts for help.

Many columnist and other members of the media have come down hard on Rachael but the blame in this situation does not fall entirely on Rachael.  The thousands of people who file frivolous and ridiculous lawsuits every single day are also to blame.

There is a culture of lawsuit abuse in our society and our acceptance of this abuse has contributed to this situation in New Jersey. We should not be surprised to see a young person take a family dispute and turn it into a lawsuit. Rachael is doing what so many other people routinely do when they file junk lawsuits. If we do not want to see more ridiculous lawsuits such as the one Rachael filed against her parents – then we as citizens need to take a personal interest in stopping lawsuit abuse by getting involved in the fight for lawsuit reform. If there is anything we can learn from the case of a teenager suing her parents – it is that we cannot afford to keep ignoring the litigious nature of our society.