Legal Standing

I am pretty sure I've written about this before, but in light of a recent NextDoor post I saw, perhaps we should revisit the issue.

First off: What is standing? Simply put, standing is the right to bring a lawsuit. If someone almost runs me off the road but I'm not hurt, I can't sue that person.

Second: What are the requirements to have standing? Well, the Supreme Court has outlined what one must have in order to have standing:

1. One must have an injury in fact. 
2. One must be able to trace the injury in fact to the conduct complained of.
3. The injury must be able to be redressed by a favorable decision.

Taking them individually, I think I illustrated the first requirement above pretty well. If someone does something awful that almost or could have caused an injury to me, I don't have standing.

As to the second requirement, if Alan runs me off the road and I'm injured, I can't then sue Bob. Bob didn't cause my injury.

As to the third requirement, I cannot sue Duke Energy for climate change because even if I win the lawsuit, the court doesn't have the power to roll back global climate change. (Of course, I could sue to enjoin Duke from making the problem worse, but that is a VERY long discussion for another day).

As a final note, I know that ranting on NextDoor is a far cry from bringing a lawsuit. However, when I see people assert things about "negligence" and "liability," my legal radar perks up and any litigator will tell you that one of the first things you look at is whether the person complaining has standing.