The Legal Times reports that "virtually every" major law office in Washington, D.C., has set up a Y2K litigation team, and many lawyers believe those teams could be kept busy for years, with total liability exceeding $1 trillion. Perhaps they caught the following item in the Montréal Gazette, May 8, 1999:

People stocking up on canned food and flashlights preparing for a Y2K disaster are probably ideal candidates for post-traumatic stress disorder, a leading expert on the subject suggested yesterday.

Edna Foa, a psychologist who teaches at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, told a Montreal conference that people who suffer from the disorder either perceive the world as very safe or very dangerous.

Those who build shelters and stockpile food out of fear that pandemonium will break out in 2000 fall into the latter category, she said.

"These people show a vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder," Foa said in an interview after the conference organized by the Association des Médecins Psychiatres du Québec.

"Most of us won't build these shelters. But these people have a perception that the world is entirely dangerous and things can happen at any minute."

It's estimated that up to 10 per cent of the population is affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD has been recognized for more than a century under a variety of labels, including shell shock and hysteria.

People with the disorder have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event like physical abuse or rape. They relive their trauma in flashbacks and usually suffer from severe anxiety that can make it impossible for them to work....

One of the most promising treatments is called exposure therapy, which requires the person to close his or her eyes and recount in detail the horror of the trauma....

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