Ghost claims: lumping in the civil justice system

Since most people who suffer injuries never pursue a claim against a responsible party, their cases become “ghost claims” and their voices are not heard within the civil justice system. The result is not only disadvantageous for the victim but also for the system as a whole, since policy choices by judges and legislators tend to be based on the atypical cases that make their way to formal adjudication rather than on the far more common incidents that go unrecognized. This chapter discusses three reasons for the ubiquity of ghost claims: the normalization of injuries, self-blame, and culture and legal consciousness. Moreover, the desire to pursue justice may be secondary to the goal of maintaining one's position in a social group; and the pursuit of a claim could risk violating important group norms. For these reasons, lumping injuries is the rule in most cases and claiming is the exception.