When Atlanta's transit system wanted to switch from an old token based system that was obsolete and unrepairable to smartcard system like most transit systems use, they hired consultants to ensure that there were no flaws in the way they bid out the new system. Even with that, the company with the losing bid filed a lawsuit. That company ended up losing the lawsuit but the people of Atlanta were stuck using the broken token system for an extra year or two while the case bumped around the court system. The damage wasn't just the cost of the consultants to try to prevent this and then for the legal staff to defend the transit authority, but also the public lost out by being forced to continue using an obsolete system. It's very frustrating but perhaps an unavoidable artifact of our legal system.

It’s not unavoidable. They should simply pay the bills AND the losses of the winning side. It’s the same as false accusation to someone, you ought to pay for all damages you might have incurred.

As an Atlanta native, the token was better... fwiw.