A nation of litigious whinners.

[sunstruck]

I think it's a safe bet that the United States had more law suits on a daily basis than any other country in the world. Why?

People are fond of saying that lawyers are slimely, immoral, sneaky little sheisters, and while I can definitely think of a few who belong on that list I know, that the moment a possible suit pops up most people are going to hire the sliimiest, sneakiest shieister they can afford.

We live in a time where the motto seems to be "If you don't like it, sue". That is fucking rediculous.

When I was hit by a car (technically a shopping cart was hit by a car and the cart hit me) a few months back, there were a lot of people here who cheered for me to sue the bastard. Why? His insurance covered all my medical bills, it was an accident, so why were so many so gung ho for me to sue some poor old man out of his pension?

Why? Because we can. The standards for a frivilous, and therefore dismissable suit have become rediculously high. Can laws be passed to change this? Is there anything that can be done? Or are we just doomed to become a country in which people have to sign wavers before shaking hands?

 

[marksgirl]

And everyone wonders why insurance rates are sky high. duh

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

The problem is that a too-overreaching law would eliminate alot of lawsuits that could turn out to be important. Some lawsuits seem frivolous, but may be important upon reflection. Maybe we HAVE to allow a judge to make that call, rather than set a ban on lawsuits.

 

[bad kitty]

It is greed and the new concept that everyone thinks that the world owes them. It sickens my stomach. Why work when you can sue someone and get rich quick? It doesn't matter if it is right or worng.

 

[sunstruck]

The problem is that a too-overreaching law would eliminate alot of lawsuits that could turn out to be important. Some lawsuits seem frivolous, but may be important upon reflection. Maybe we HAVE to allow a judge to make that call, rather than set a ban on lawsuits.

Then maybe we need to start seating better judges.

Kitty I love your AV.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

Greed is nothing new...but what is teh alternative? It is the price we pay to live in a country that allows anyone to at least make an attempt at getting justice. Would you prefer to live in a country where entire classes of people have no course of action when someone of a higher class does them damage?

 

[Bidin~Time]

A few weeks ago I was listening to a radio show. They stated that one of the finalists (she may be a winner by now) of the Stella Awards was a woman who sued a furniture store. It seems she tripped and fell over a rowdy toddler while shopping in the store. She broke her ankle in the fall.

Oh I almost forgot...

the rowdy toddler was her own child.

I don't remember the exact amount of her settlement, but it seems it was in the $375,000 range.

(the Stella Awards are named for the woman who sued McDonalds when she spilled her coffee and was burned.)

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

Then maybe we need to start seating better judges.

Kitty I love your AV.

Maybe parents should start raising a better class of citizen.

 

[sunstruck]

What price are you paying exactly Johhny?

 

[sunstruck]

Maybe parents should start raising a better class of citizen.

Now that I totally agree with.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

A few weeks ago I was listening to a radio show. They stated that one of the finalists (she may be a winner by now) of the Stella Awards was a woman who sued a furniture store. It seems she tripped and fell over a rowdy toddler while shopping in the store. She broke her ankle in the fall.

Oh I almost forgot...

the rowdy toddler was her own child.

I don't remember the exact amount of her settlement, but it seems it was in the $375,000 range.

(the Stella Awards are named for the woman who sued McDonalds when she spilled her coffee and was burned.)

LOL, I saw a list of these a few weeks back, all funny.


How do you get rid of these without making legitmate claims impossible to make? Do we slap people senseless when they sue for stupid things? Or just slap them with 100% of court costs on both sides?

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

What price are you paying exactly Johhny?

We all pay in higher taxes and insurance rates, but any alternative has to be balanced to protect our right to sue when we have a legitimate claim.

 

[Minkey Boodle]

Suing makes your heart and soul feel better. It's good for your health, really.

 

[brokenbrainwave]

or perhaps given our culture of wanting it all without lifting a damned finger to get it we see this as the easy way out. I do not agree with a congresional decree saying you can sue for this, while not being able to for that. That would be merely another step towards the completely socialist society we are becoming. However with the word Sue being transfered from noun to verb form before our very eyes a better question is what sort of example is this setting for the following generations.

When a fucking parent can sue so their lazy assed child can graduate (actual case this past year) and win (the child had done shit, failed miserably, was not going to walk). When a person can sue a fast food restuarant while claiming he or she did not know that Whopper they were shoving down their throats with the palms of their hands one after another would make them fat after waddling their large ass in day after day. When someone whom smokes, especially ones who've started in the last say 20 years, can sue when they get lung cancer. So on and so forth. Personal accoutabitly has been completely tossed from the America gendre. We so deserve to reap what we are going to sow.

You dont like what I said, fuckin sue me.....

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

Suing makes your heart and soul feel better. It's good for your health, really.

You are thinking of Vitamin C, I think.

 

[zipman]

The problem isn't just slimy lawyers or greedy people. The real problem are the juries that award these ridiculous settlements. When people see these outrageous sums being awarded by juries, they see it as a get-rich quick scheme.

We need to make damage awards reasonable and we also need to hold the plaintiffs acountable for their own stupidity (re: stella awards).

 

[sunstruck]

We all pay in higher taxes and insurance rates, but any alternative has to be balanced to protect our right to sue when we have a legitimate claim.

And all I'm saying is that the standards that make a claim ligitimate need to be more strict. Judges need to dismiss more of these cases.

 

[Annabelllee2003]

Then maybe we need to start seating better judges.

I second that.

It seems to me that since the '60's there is far too much wailing and ranting of those that feel 'entitled'.

I come from a family of share-cropping immigrants. The work ethic is embedded in our bones. And it will be in my children's.

I cringe when I think of the litigation that awarded someone money because McDonald's coffee scalded their crotch.

 

[Minkey Boodle]

You are thinking of Vitamin C, I think.

Vitamin C is good for your immune system, but it could also help with the suing, too.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

It is a shame that the good lawsuits get lumped in with the bad. There really needs to be some sort of standard, and some sort of serious punishment for those who sue for outrageous sums for no good reason except greed. There should be a level where we say "Would a reasonable person do this?!?", and if not, the lawsuit gets thrown out. If I am hurt because of a defective product, I should sue and win big, no question. If I am too stupid to figure out, for instance, that I shouldn't shove a Q-Tip 2 inches into my head, that's my problem.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

The problem isn't just slimy lawyers or greedy people. The real problem are the juries that award these ridiculous settlements. When people see these outrageous sums being awarded by juries, they see it as a get-rich quick scheme.

We need to make damage awards reasonable and we also need to hold the plaintiffs acountable for their own stupidity (re: stella awards).

There is a reason, and a good one, for 'outrageous' awards. If you set the limit at, say, $100,000, a milti-billion dollar corporation can pay that out while continuing to practice whatever behaviour got them sued in the first place. The huge sums are to make it impossible for the corporations to sweep problems under a rug.

 

[Bidin~Time]

Greed is nothing new...but what is teh alternative? It is the price we pay to live in a country that allows anyone to at least make an attempt at getting justice. Would you prefer to live in a country where entire classes of people have no course of action when someone of a higher class does them damage?

Greed or justice?

The 2002 True Stella Awards Winners

#7: Attorney Philip Shafer of Ashland, Ohio, flew on Delta Airlines from New Orleans to Cincinnati and was given a seat, he says, next to a fat man. "He was a huge man," Shafer says. "He and I [were] literally and figuratively married from the right kneecap to the shoulder for two hours." He therefore "suffered embarrassment, severe discomfort, mental anguish and severe emotional distress," he claims in a lawsuit against the airline. Shafer figures this embarrassment, discomfort, mental anguish and emotional distress could be cured by a $9,500 payment from Delta. If Shafer isn't careful, that might be dwarfed by the divorce settlement his "huge" (seat)mate might demand.


http://www.stellaawards.com/2002.html

 

[Calamity Jane]

A few weeks ago I was listening to a radio show. They stated that one of the finalists (she may be a winner by now) of the Stella Awards was a woman who sued a furniture store. It seems she tripped and fell over a rowdy toddler while shopping in the store. She broke her ankle in the fall.

Oh I almost forgot...

the rowdy toddler was her own child.

I don't remember the exact amount of her settlement, but it seems it was in the $375,000 range.

(the Stella Awards are named for the woman who sued McDonalds when she spilled her coffee and was burned.)

Don't believe everything you read/hear/see on TV


http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.htm


Claim: Six real lawsuits showcase the need for tort reform.
Status: False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]


This is what's wrong with the world:
1. January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000.00 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amuck inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving tyke was Ms. Robertson's son.

2. June 1998: A 19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000.00 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran his hand over with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice someone was at the wheel of the car whose hubcap he was trying to steal.

3. October 1998: A Terrence Dickson of Bristol Pennsylvania was exiting a house he finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up, because the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, so Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. This upset Mr. Dickson, so he sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars and change.

4. October 1999: Jerry Williams of Little Rock Arkansas was awarded $14,500.00 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced-in yard, as was Mr. Williams. The award was less than sought after because the jury felt the dog may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

5. May 2000: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500.00 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

6. December 1997: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000.00 and dental expenses.

 

[Purple Haze]

I think about this once in a while, particularily today. I own a little shop downtown and the freezing rain has made the sidewalk as slick as you-know-what. I cringe to think that somebody is going to slip and crack his/her head on the cement. What if this person were to seek legal action? Any good attorney will sue in all directions, and hopefully one of the suits won't be thrown out of court. I can imagine they would go after the owner of the building, the owner of the business, the city, the guy that poured the cement and the weatherman too. One of these suits will stick. If I'm targeted, and even found not liable for damages, the cost of defending myself would bankrupt me.

I'm going out to throw down some more salt...

 

[YadaYada]

It is a shame that the good lawsuits get lumped in with the bad. There really needs to be some sort of standard, and some sort of serious punishment for those who sue for outrageous sums for no good reason except greed. There should be a level where we say "Would a reasonable person do this?!?", and if not, the lawsuit gets thrown out. If I am hurt because of a defective product, I should sue and win big, no question. If I am too stupid to figure out, for instance, that I shouldn't shove a Q-Tip 2 inches into my head, that's my problem.

I'm not supposed to shove the Q-tips all the way in???

Well THAT just may explain a thing or two...