An out-of-town friend recently visited L.A. and made an observation about braving our freeway system that had nothing to do with gridlock.

Why are there so many billboard ads for lawyers?

I got curious too, counting at least a dozen while driving up the 710 Freeway recently from Long Beach to Los Angeles. My colleague Caroline Petrow-Cohen explained the business reasons, including growing market demand, for the bonanza, quoting one expert as saying “there’s probably more ads for lawyers now than ever.”

But do all these billboards say something larger about L.A. and our civil courts?

Over the last few years, The Times has devoted quite a bit of investigative reporting muscle to the dark side of the civil bar and those who exploit it for personal gain.

Everybody hates lawyers until

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