I agree it was a very good idea!! And honestly, that'd be hilarious - if I got my way of casting for B66 then it'd be a good excuse to see Frank Gorshin and Sammy Davis Jr. in the same room again, lol
Although as the resident Gorshin Riddler analyst, I'm going to have to go through this and explain why he didn't go with that. I just want to stress I am by no means invalidating your point!! It's a very good one, I'm just going through his thought process(?) as it were, just because, well, it's fun.
Anyway! Yes, the suing idea would likely have worked, but there's two things to note here - a) that's not the fate for Batman that Riddler actually wants, and b) he didn't decide to go for the elephant scheme at the 'same time' (by implication) because THAT was the main plot. The suing was actually the sideplot, not the elephant.
We can see this from the way he plans it. A lot of Riddler's schemes come full circle, because that's how he plans them - it's a tactic to hide the proper scheme under Batman's nose the entire duration, to outwit him with a "you could've known the whole time".
In the episode you mention, "Hi Diddle Riddle/A Smack in the Middle", you'll notice it doesn't start with the suing plot, but the exploding cake bit on the prime minister of Moldavia, which gets mistaken for a political threat. Noticing how the episode ends with the Riddler trying to bulgarise the elephant that stood behind the prime minister at the beginning.
In "A Riddle a Day Keeps the Riddler Away/When the Rat's Away the Mice Will Play" (why wasn't that called "When the BAT's Away, the Mice Will Play"??), he begins with setting off his tricky gadgets against King Boris, which winds up as being the reason he's able to complete the scheme at all, since the King inadvertantly plants the bomb for him at the end.
In "The Ring of Wax/Give 'Em the Axe", he starts with his riddle regarding the library (and he "book", indicating the one he steals) and ends up trying to thieve the Lost Treasure of the Incas.
In "Death in Slow Motion/The Riddler's False Notion", he begins with a petty payroll burglary at Van Jones' silent movie event - Van Jones being the key here, as he ends up trying to steal the silent films from his safe at the end.
I think the only exception is "Ring Around the Riddler", but that's... Season 3 is written awfully. Everything's topsy-turvy and sometimes OOC.
There's always hints throughout, because that's just how he works. And yes, he is extra, because in 66, his leaving riddles aren't a compulsion like they are in some modern things (DESPITE what the ""tribute"" comics might say - those were written terribly), it's of his own accord that he does this, which we can tell from the fact he doesn't always leave a riddle when he commits a crime, especially in the set-up just before (3rd appearance comes to mind especially), and that... very RiddleBat-tinged line in the movie in regards to leaving the riddles: "Oh, but I must, I must! Outwitting Batman is my soul delight, my joy, my heaven on Earth, my very... paradise!" (someone help him).
This established, onto why the suing was sidelined. We already know he takes great pleasure from outwitting Batman, so part of this is just the fact that he considers it too simple for his standards. It would have worked, yes, but it's not tricky enough for it to be a Riddler-esque crime, in his eyes. He needs to go above and beyond time after time and prove himself (feeding into his need for validation, emphaised in his 3rd appearance and the 1979 special). He wants people to know him as someone who came up with something so intelligent that he was constantly ten steps ahead of Batman and tricked him to the wrong place.
Secondly, if Batman's identity was actually revealed, as Batman correctly says, it would ruin his place as an anonymous crimefighter, and make things far more difficult. Riddler loves outwitting him, and his problem isn't really the riddles as much as it is his need to outsmart/be around Batman. Everything is tailored specifically to him (I'll have to talk about how he changes his riddles specifically for Batman another time), which brings me onto my next point: he never intended to actually sue him.
Why then, what's the point? Honestly? It's something of a scare tactic, to get Batman nervous and give him an active time limit, and make the 'game' more fun. Batman is usually level-headed and ridiculously logical, and he figures things out unbelievably well. So, then, how do you foil a man with this capability? You get him off-guard by hitting him where it hurts. In this case? His job, the threat of his identity being revealed and ruining what he cares so much about.
It's the same logic he follows when he kidnaps Robin, again, and again, and again. Batman cares for that boy like a son and Riddler knows that, so getting him out of the way (whilst keeping him unharmed like in the first episode but not implying that), is what gets Batman nervous. An anxious Batman is one that isn't thinking logically, but impulsively. An anxious Batman is one that'll prioritise emotions over intellect. An anxious Batman is a Batman that makes mistakes.
And that's his logic. He knows Batman better than anyone else and the same goes in turn vice versa from Batman to Riddler (he even says something along the lines of this multiple times). The suing caper is good, great even, but it's too simple stand-alone. It needed to be good enough to be the full scheme though, because it was part of outwitting him and getting him on edge (the rest of the plan behind hidden in secret writing on the document itself, implying the plan isn't all it seems, etc etc.); it needed to be realistic enough to be believable. And we see that it was the case, as Dick Grayson was the one to figure it out, not Bruce. He was too busy being distressed over his situation.
Riddler planned it perfectly, and used it well. It was a great idea, and it is somewhat a shame it went on this BUT at the same time, I think the fact it did go on that plan really elevates the scheme itself as a whole. He's so smart and it really shows his capabilities and rightful place as Batman's main adversary in this particular version (having the most episodes of Season 1 speaks for itself).
As much as I'd love to see him do a court plot, I'd have to think about how it could fit whilst following the premises he likes to choose in a way that stays true to his character. It'd probably work better as some kind of short/bit? Given the weight you can do with court scenes and such (and we did get one with Joker and Catwoman but it was only a sub-section of an episode, as was the other with the Penguin), it'd likely have to be like that, but as a one-off thing. If you end the episode on something like that and Batman wins (obviously), then you still get his disappointment at losing, but then you don't receive the excitement given to the viewer from the inevitable scene where Riddler is properly foiled.
Riddler episodes are different in that he's never caught or cornered right until the end, unless he plans to be, only to get the upper hand (1st, 2nd, and 3rd appearances). The whole time, the Riddler is a step ahead and he's getting better and better and more and more confident in his abilities and scheme. You know he won't win, but he gets so painfully close that maybe, maybe he might just get it this time... Only for the tables to turn right at the last minute and he sees that darn bat-shadow against the wall, and then we know exactly what's going to happen. He eludes Batman all the way through, right until the last moment, and that's a feeling that's slightly hard to replicate with a court scene. Perhaps unless it was the ending scene to a two-parter and there was a sideplot, or, well, that'd probably end up as the sideplot given its un-Riddlery nature.
In other universes of Batman, yes, absolutely he could do that, but it's something that is a little trickier to fit into B66 in a way that feels like he planned it. It'd be an interesting story in 66, though, albeit one that wouldn't be canon to his character given the fact Frank once said he thinks the Riddler should try different approaches each time. This all being said, it's a very fun concept to play around with!!
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