Many of those frivolous lawsuits--the ones that make you roll your eyes when you hear about them--could go away under a bill proposed in Washington by South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. He was in Columbia Monday, along with Gov. Mark Sanford, urging similar legislation at the state level.

Called "loser-pay" legislation, it requires the loser in a civil lawsuit to pay the winner's legal fees, or at least some of them. Under Sen. Graham's bill, the judge would decide if the loser pays, and how much.

Sen. Graham says, "If you want to sue McDonald's for making you obese, I guess you have the right to do so. But, under my bill, if you lost and the jury said you're part of your own problem, then you'd have to pay McDonald's legal costs."

He says it would cut down on many of the frivolous lawsuits now being filed, which cost all of us in higher insurance rates and higher costs for goods and services.

"People sue business to shake 'em down. It's cheaper to settle than it is to go to court," Sen. Graham says. "A loser-pay rule, I think, would change that dynamic." 

Many other countries already have such laws, including England and most of Europe.

But critics say loser-pay laws hurt the average person. If you have a legitimate complaint, you might be hesitant to sue, for fear that you'd be financially ruined if you had to pay the winner's legal fees.

For example, students at Stratford High School in Goose Creek have filed a federal class-action lawsuit over a police raid last year that they say terrorized them and violated their civil rights. It was a drug search that found nothing.

If a loser-pay law were in effect, high school students and their parents might think they couldn't afford to sue the school district, the police and the city.

But Sen. Graham says loser-pay laws actually help the average person, not big corporations with deep pockets. "Large companies try to drive little people out of a lawsuit by running up the cost. If they had to pay these extra costs, they would be more likely to settle. I think you'd have a fairer process."

The South Carolina Bar Association hasn't taken a position on Sen. Graham's bill. It would apply only to federal courts.

But Bar Association President-elect Earl Ellis says, "Because it's such a balanced act, I don't think that we'll find anybody screaming too loudly against this."

Specifically, he says the bill contains a lot of safeguards to protect "the little guy". A judge doesn't have to award legal fees if he doesn't think they're warranted, or the loser is unable to pay.