Gatsby’s Lost Plaintiffs: On The Absurd Fiction Of Legal Equality In America

If Jay Gatsby had survived nan bullet, would he person had a case?

Imagine nan lawsuit: negligent security, wrongful decease attempt, possibly moreover a defamation perspective against Tom Buchanan. But of course, Gatsby doesn’t survive. That’s nan point. In The Great Gatsby, justness doesn’t unrecorded successful West Egg. It sips martinis crossed nan bay successful an old-money mansion and ne'er faces moreover a semblance of consequence. The caller ends, arsenic truthful galore ineligible cases do, pinch a motion and a ceremonial nary 1 attends.

Scott Fitzgerald didn’t constitute a courtroom drama, but he did constitute a ineligible reality—one that still shapes American life. His 1925 masterpiece is simply a glittering, gin-soaked indictment of really wealth, class, and societal polish warp nan distribution of power. A period later, nan American ineligible strategy is still struggling to shed its Daisy Buchanan problem: nan rule protects those who already belong.

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Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, is simply a quintessential believer successful nan American Dream. He builds an empire, reinvents his identity, and throws parties truthful sparkling they look untouchable by consequence. But nan infinitesimal things spell sideways—when Myrtle Wilson is killed, erstwhile blasted must beryllium assigned—it’s Gatsby who pays, not nan group pinch pedigree.

Tom and Daisy Buchanan lie, flee, and retreat into nan cocoon of inherited status. Their immunity is social, but it’s besides legal. The rule doesn’t travel for them because, implicitly, it wasn’t designed to.

This move remains intact successful our modern ineligible system. You tin spot it successful nan costs of civilian litigation. Filing a suit successful America is easy if you’re wealthy. If you’re not, bully luck. You’ll request a lawyer consenting to return contingency. You’ll request stamina for years of procedural trench warfare. You’ll request to past nan gauntlet of hold tactics, find abuse, and judge-made doctrines for illustration arbitration clauses and opinionated rules that softly push mediocre plaintiffs disconnected nan map.

Jay Gatsby wouldn’t get far. Not because he isn’t rich—but because he isn’t the correct benignant of rich. He’s nouveau riche. Outsider rich. Contingent rich. And American law, past arsenic now, tends to favour bequest complete hustle.

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Look nary further than today’s hot-button issue: non-compete clauses. Once reserved for high-level executives, they’ve metastasized into accelerated nutrient jobs, canine groomers, and storage workers. These are contracts that say: you whitethorn work, but not freely. You whitethorn leave, but not without penalty. You whitethorn dream, but not excessively big.

Sound familiar?

It’s Gatsby again, staring crossed nan bay astatine nan greenish light—forever reaching, ne'er arriving. The committedness of mobility, blocked by nan invisible manus of entrenched power.

Non-competes are often legally enforceable only because group deficiency nan money to conflict them. Companies cognize this. The clauses don’t request to triumph successful court—they conscionable request to intimidate. It’s nan aforesaid strategy Tom Buchanan uses: exert dominance, spot nan strategy won’t push back, and if it does, retreat into privilege.

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Even successful areas wherever plaintiffs theoretically person power—say, successful wide tort litigation—Gatsby’s shade lingers. Think of nan thousands injured by talc powder, toxic water, aliases defective drugs. These cases make headlines, settlements, moreover immoderate measurement of justice. But nan machinery down them is slow, expensive, and often shaped by nan very corporations being sued.

Settlement structures prioritize velocity complete individual recovery. Bankruptcy maneuvers (think Purdue Pharma) are utilized to limit liability. Plaintiffs go information points successful litigation portfolios—Gatsbys successful their ain right, victims pinch stories excessively analyzable to fresh connected a docket sheet.

Fitzgerald understood this agelong earlier multidistrict litigation was a gleam successful a judge’s eye. In his world, arsenic successful ours, calamity is personalized and justness is procedural.

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And past there’s Daisy. Elusive, enchanting, and ever protected. In Gatsby’s universe, she represents some nan entity of desire and nan strategy that withholds it. She is astatine erstwhile nan emotion liking and nan embodiment of structural unfairness.

Daisy runs personification complete and gets distant pinch it. Today, her analogues donate to PACs, endow chairs astatine rule schools, and constitute op-eds astir civility successful politics. They opportunity things for illustration “the strategy works,” moreover erstwhile it plainly doesn’t.

In modern courtrooms, Daisy appears arsenic nan well-lawyered defendant. She’s nan executive who claims ignorance, nan institution that issues a non-apology, nan leader who blames nan algorithm. She walks retired unscathed because she was ne'er really connected trial. Just for illustration successful West Egg.

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If Fitzgerald were live today, he mightiness group The Great Gatsby successful Silicon Valley aliases Palm Beach. Gatsby would beryllium a startup laminitis pinch a SPAC. Tom would beryllium calved connected 3rd guidelines pinch a litigation warfare chest. Daisy would beryllium curated and corporate, not soft and Southern. But nan ineligible system? That wouldn’t request overmuch rewriting.

We still unrecorded successful a state wherever lawsuits are luxury goods. Where justness is gated. Where nan civilian courts opportunity “everyone is adjacent earlier nan law,” but nan docket tells a different story.

Gatsby believed successful nan greenish light. Lawyers—especially those successful nan plaintiff’s bar—believe successful nan courthouse. But some dreams trust connected access, and entree still excessively often depends connected whether you’re from East Egg aliases West.

Until we build a strategy wherever people and superior don’t dictate outcomes, Gatsby will support dying. And nan Buchanans will support moving on.