Another criticism of private attorney general suits in common law jurisdictions is that the availability of discovery enables private attorneys general to impose costs on defendants in order to force settlements in unmeritorious cases to avoid the cost of discovery. Similarly, legal commentators in civil law jurisdictions argue that broad discovery in the hands of private parties is destructive of the rule of law and amounts to "a private inquisition." Civil law countries see the underlying objectives of discovery as properly monopolised by the state in order to maintain the rule of law: the investigative objective of discovery is the prerogative of the executive branch, and insofar as discovery may be able to facilitate the creation of new rights, that is the prerogative of the legislative branch.
