Philip K. Howard of Common Good, in the new issue of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal:

...a private lawsuit, we seem to have forgotten, is a use of state power against another private citizen. Filing a lawsuit is just like indicting someone � it's just an indictment for money. Without the protection of a disinterested prosecutor and a grand jury, the defendant needs the protection of the judge to decide whether the claim has legal merit, leaving the jury to decide disputed facts.