A large portion of the US economy is based on this entire grift pipeline (settling before getting to court). And it's very costly and pushes up insurance costs and costs in general for everyone else.
When people talk about government inefficiency, I always think of how prevalent these kinds of shenanigans really are. I think they are more costly than inefficient government.
It's incredibly costly, and I think it's also incredibly costly in difficult to measure ways. The main method that the average American (read as: not incredibly wealthy person who has lawyers retained) uses to deal with the early stages of this pipeline is engaging in interminably long phone calls, going back and forth between multiple stakeholders, and trying to negotiate as to what actually needs to be paid or done individually. The incentives are aligned for various members of this process to make it a complicated and frustrating experience for customers, because they often benefit from increasing friction for the insured party. I think if you measured working hours lost or impacted by this it would be startlingly high.
Pretty much every 4+ figure civil violation, fine, etc, etc, is assessed on the basis of "what's the most we can get away with that won't have them taking us to court where it'll get knocked down or cause a public outcry if they tell the news"
Having to settle because court cases take too long to resolve is due to inefficient government.
Not only does the actual court case and appeals process take years, but even after you “win”, the collection process takes years after it has already been determined who owes what.
See Alex Jones for a ridiculous example. He should have been homeless and shirtless a long time ago.
While you're not wrong that most "justice" processes are expensive, I think the parent-poster is referring to a different kind of "government inefficiency", things like:
1. Single-payer health insurance.
2. Laws that insurance-companies must actually use X% of their premiums on payouts.
3. Laws requiring disclosure of negotiated prices, to encourage competition via free-market forces.
