At some point the question of "who is actually right, and who is actually wrong" has to be answered through the work of people. Those people have to be paid. For criminal work, that's taxpayers footing the bill -- sometimes just for one side. For civil, the government provides a judge and the rest has to be paid for privately. It's not awful, but it can be so inefficient that it can break down due to resource exhaustion, or worse, a vector for abuse.