ABSTRACT
Outrage is having its moment in our politics, interactions, and culture. Our civil justice system, as the place where conflict can be resolved and perhaps made right, has not escaped this same reality. There are ‘judicial hellholes’, ‘benchslaps’, and ‘lunatic judges’. As our collective tolerance for outrage increases, it is tempting to dismiss these expressions of outrage within our civil justice system as mere rhetoric. But this outrage is more than that; it is a form of institutional power that affects how our civil justice system functions.
This article examines how actors with greater power and resources leverage outrage to gain an advantage in the civil justice system. When the civil justice system privileges certain forms of outrage, it necessarily suppresses other expressions of outrage by less powerful actors. This asymmetry shapes how civil rules and doctrines develop, which, in turn, affects who has greater access to the system. Outrage can open doors to reforms that benefit the very actors expressing that emotion; it can lend credence to judicial perspectives that may not be widely shared; and it can obscure and delegitimize certain judicial decisions. With a focus on aspects of our civil justice system where outrage is marshaled and valued differently, this article examines the distributive justice implications of this variation. It dissects corporate manipulation of outrage and how it contributes to procedural reforms that benefit corporations. It also explores perceptions of whose anger is legitimate or unhinged, what judicial behaviors are permitted, and which judicial decisions are legitimized. With this context in mind, the article considers a more constructive approach to outrage – what benefits it can bring us systemically, its potential dangers, and how institutional actors and society might better weigh it.
Coleman, Brooke, Outrage: Anger and Angst in the Civil Justice System, Belmont Law Review (forthcoming) (October 1, 2025); Seattle University Law Review, forthcoming.
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