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Notes -
And the judge tells them to knock it off. I am starting to wonder if the real problem is that US civil cases are mostly heard in State courts where the judge is an answer to the joke "What do you call a lawyer with a room temperature IQ? - Your Honor"
With a few exceptions (like the Delaware Court of Chancery), the US is egregiously unable to make sure important civil cases end up in front of judges who know what they are doing. As far as I can see, there are a few things going on that drive this - the thing that is most unusual internationally is elected judges, but I suspect that a bigger deal is the American tradition of handling all first instance cases in the County they are filed in - most states have no equivalent to the English High Court or the Superior Courts in the Canadian provinces as a dedicated first instance court for important civil cases.
I definitely agree expert judges (and even moreso juries) are an issue in our system.
This is especially true for white collar crime. How can 12 average Americans understand the nuances of insider trading laws? Or the accounting of Enron?
Americas adversarial system doesn’t work that well for complexity.
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