Question

It would seem reasonable that the laws of the Torah should govern and determine the order of life in the most correct way.
I started learning Choshen Mishpat in kollel, and I just can’t understand what’s going on here.
For example, it says that you need only ordained religious court judges, and if there aren’t any, then courts judge only matters that are common; but that leaves the world lawless in many other areas.
For example, if one person injures another, according to the Torah nowadays he is not supposed to pay for what he did.
So much so that the Geonim had to take a roundabout path to save the terrible situation this caused.
And this is the Torah about which it is said, “for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations”? Any nation that hears such things would not appreciate the Torah, to put it mildly.
Another thing that is very hard to understand is the concept of “I can rely on this opinion” — that in recent centuries the judges no longer decide the law, but only leave it in the hands of the current possessor. And again I ask: is this what a normal legal system is supposed to look like???