Sadly, unless you really know what you're doing, you have to pay a lawyer to respond to their lawyers, and that process can be dragged out in any number of ways, either intentionally or just because the system has a lot of process and red tape.

In addition, they can request to do things like: - Request a court order to stop you from doing any further side work until the case is settled - Depose all your friends and co-workers - Seize all your equipment for analysis - Change the venue to another state if corporate HQ isn't where you live, requiring travel for you (and your lawyers) for meetings

You can, of course, object to all this in front of a judge...but that requires a lawyer too.

This all adds up over time, and every phone call, letter, meeting, or appearance in court costs hundreds of dollars per hour (and usually billed in whole-hour increments) for your lawyer to represent you. Eventually, some people can no longer afford to defend themselves.

Note: IANAL - these are only things I have witnessed personally.

We need a Software Union to protect creative freedoms.

This kind of naïveté about the legal system is dangerous. I know someone who spent 4 years of his life in court in a case where he was obviously in the right But every time he won, it was escalated to a higher court and it ended up costing him several magnitudes more than the sum the case was about ($10k, yes, seriously) Just the opportunity cost lost due to spending 4 years in litigation is insane in itself

This was in Denmark, not the us. But if someone has it out for you, in any court system, they can make your life hell

And the Danish system is in many ways a lot saner than the us one anyway

Presumably, in most systems, the loser pays all (legal) costs for both sides at least.

the cost involved was not in legal costs

Time spent preparing (four years, preparing for three different court cases in the three different circuits)

high paying job offers that fell through because of the uncertainty involved

Living under constant stress for four years straight

I wouldn't even dare to put a number on this

Not in the US

That gives a larger/richer entity the power to use litigation as threat/bullying only by having deeper pockets. It means there is a legal advantage of having more money. That's insane.

As I usually say re the US "How is THIS not an issue in the election?"

If I was reasonably sure I had the law on my side I'd dare go to court against an entity of any size, relying on the convention that the loser pays, and the rulings are nearly always in favor of an employee.

Ever wonder why Apple, Microsoft and Google keep billions of dollars on hand for no reason? Now you don't need to wonder.

If you have 95% chance of winning a lawsuit, and if the company you sue can afford to spend $10M on it, loser-pays-all means you have 5% chance of going bankrupt (unless you have >$10M in your account).

I don't think it's any more fair than the current US system.

First of all most would be better chance than 95% in favor of the employee in almost all cases like this, and second even $1M would not be considered reasonable costs (they can spend what they want but the court won't rule their costs to be paid by the other party if they aren't reasonable in comparison to the case itself).

I'd most likely face a less than 1% risk of paying less than $100k, even if the other party is a global mega corp. Also, the tech workers union I'm in can step in to back legal fees.

Are you not American? It seems like legal costs in the US are sky high and people are constantly afraid of getting sued. I think it's somewhat better in mainland Europe, at least I don't see such anxiety over getting sued or so many threats of suing someone.

I am in Germany now. Can you tell me why this is not the case in mainland Europe? Is it much better in Europe to do side-project in lieu of the fear of getting sued?

I don't have any experience in this. I simply hear less fear about getting sued when you're in the right (I don't know how it is with side projects, I was more reacting to the issue of getting sued when you're right). I think the legal costs of defending yourself aren't so extreme in Europe. Also, I think there's less suing culture in Europe than in the US. All those stories of people suing the microwave manufacturer for failing to warn about drying cats in it or cafés not writing "Warning! Hot!" on the cup etc. In such cases people can get extreme amounts of money in the US that is less usual in here I think.

I am America. I am questioning why it is required to hire a lawyer for my example above

Depends on what you mean by "required". Is it required by law? No, probably not. If you actually want to win your case, however, you're going to need a lot of knowledge about the laws in question as well as court and legal proceedings to stand a chance, or your opposition's lawyers are likely to win the case on some sort of technicality because you didn't provide some document at the appropriate time or something like that.