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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
 Posted - 02/21/2003 : 11:55:18
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I firmly believe that unscrupulous lawyers and idiotic plaintiffs are going to be the downfall of the legal system that has served this country so well for over 200 years.
Yesterday I saw a story on the Fox New Channel about a lawyer in Chicago who is bringing a class action suit against 2 theater chains for breach of contract. He alleges that by showing 4 minutes of commercials before the movies causes the movie to start later than it's stated start time and therefore the theaters breached the contract formed when a ticket is purchased for a specific show time.
The lawyer said that he got the idea for the lawsuit during a conversation at a dinner party with some friends.
My second nomination for stupidest lawsuit is the case of Clara Harris. The dentist who ran over her cheating husband in a Mercedes (if it had been a pickup it would make a good country song.) It seems the ex-wife of Mr. Harris, the mother of the girl who was in the car with Mrs. Harris during the murder, has brought a wrongful death suit against Mrs. Harris on behalf of her daughter to keep the murderess from the $6 million estate of her now dead husband.
All of that seems perfectly reasonable. It gets sleazy and down right wrong when they added Hilton Hotels to the suit. The only thing Hilton did was provide the parking lot that Harris happened to be in when he became road kill. Can someone please tell me, other than the deep pockets, why Hilton would ever be named in such a suit? This is the kind of tactic that makes me and lots of people like me feel total contempt for the legal profesion.
Please, everyone chip in your stories of stupid lawsuits. |
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Jeanette
25 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2003 : 12:59:13
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NEW YORK — Want a class-action lawsuit with that burger?
A New York City lawyer has filed suit against the four big fast-food corporations, saying their fatty foods are responsible for his client’s obesity and related health problems.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58652,00.html
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! What ever happened to personal responsibility and accountability. Are we actually making our own choices? It seems everything we do is someone else's fault. First we subsidize tobacco, then we warn not to use it, then we pay for the related health problems, then we award huge settlements to those who chose to smoke.... Now it's KFC and hamburgers, the evil staples of the insurance adjuster's diet. Perhaps it's the vendors' and carriers'fault that we have had to eat so many of them.... |
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olderthendirt
USA
370 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2003 : 13:21:39
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| In Texas last summer a judge fined two lawyers (I believe it was $25000 each) for brings a baseless lawsuit against some Doctors in a case where a child died during birth. Did not hear if the fines stood. This should be common practice by the courts. |
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Newt
USA
657 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2003 : 15:06:23
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It is getting to a point that all law suits will be viewed as a scam and the victims of a real injustice will suffer. In my oppinion this is going to be the view by all in the near future.
Mal practice insurance is costing us dearly in premiums and health care costs,and are in the process now of waving the flag, the pendelum will swing the other way.
If a person files a law suit and looses, he should have to pay all costs plus the defendants costs. That would put a stop to dumb law suits. |
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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2003 : 15:08:57
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| I agree Newt, there should be a loser pays system. That is the only thing that will keep the legal system from spiraling out of control. Also we should have a legal triage system whereby a judge looks at cases prior to them being filed and give them a yay or nay. We should also have a fine for lawyers who file frivolous suits. But that will never happen because lawyers always watch out for their own and don't want to fix a broken system that is making them rich at the expense of society. |
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ALANJ
USA
159 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2003 : 09:31:43
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There is a thing called summary judgement. It is a motion made by the defense. It ask the court to dissmiss the lawsuit as the plaintiffs claims is without merit etc...
In the old days, this was one of the first motions made by the defense. The defense bar soon figured out by doing this on the front side of a suit, it was cutting down their service bill. So now, these guys milk the file for everything that it is worth. The motion for summary judgement is now made right before or the day of trial.
Defense lawyers have bills and x wifes to pay for to. Either you make your money milking a file on T & E, (like adjusters), or just take a cut of the settlement. Sad but true. |
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tomgriffin56
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2003 : 20:05:10
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| I take exception to the comment about adjusters milking files on T & E. If you do it yourself fine, you have to look in the mirror, but don't go around in public saying that I do. |
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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2003 : 20:09:12
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| I'm insulted that we were in any way compared to reptiles...um...I mean attorneys. |
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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2003 : 21:28:39
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Some interesting reading I found on the Newsmax.com website.
Monday, Feb. 24, 2003 3:45 p.m. EST
Lawsuit Lunacy Hits Your Wallet
You have this awful feeling - that frivolous lawsuits and outrageous jury awards are so commonplace that they are out of control and harmful to the economy - and the numbers now prove that you're correct.
Insurance consulting firm Tillinghast-Towers Perrin has just released the latest figures on the tort-uous goings-on in America's courtrooms.
Tort costs now represent almost 2.5 percent of the entire U.S. gross domestic product.
In other words, 2.5 percent of what we produce in this country is ... legal fees. Two and a half percent of our GDP is actually a cost, and not a benefit.
Tobacco settlements, asbestos litigation, toxic mold liability, investor loss class actions and now suits arguing liability over obesity are all contributing to the hellish fees and awards.
And they are costing us all a pretty penny. The cost per U.S. citizen of litigation and associated fees and awards was $87 per citizen in 1950.
By 2001 it was a staggering $721 for every man, woman and child in America.
Worse, experts are suggesting that with the new efforts to blame others for one's obesity, medical malpractice cases and suits charging corporate malfeasance, the cost per person could go to $1,000 in just two more years.
Businesses are complaining that they cannot afford the massive awards, nor can they afford the rising costs of health care that have come about, in part, because of malpractice suits and multimillion-dollar judgments against doctors and their insurance companies.
In fact, recent strikes by doctors and surgeons have brought tort reform to the forefront of the national debate.
Democrats - who have long benefited from donations by trial lawyers and who have protected the trial lawyers for years - are thinking that maybe there needs to be some sort of legislation to cap the amounts of jury awards, because they are putting health care providers out of business.
Even über-lefty Dianne Feinstein agrees with President Bush that punitive awards need to have a $250,000 ceiling, which could decrease health care costs to Americans by $60 billion a year.
The Trial Lawyers of America is against the idea, of course, but there will be a showdown in the legislative branch over tort reform in 2003 regardless.
Just what, if anything, gets reformed, is up to your representatives.
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Newt
USA
657 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 13:45:52
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Alabama is attracting many of the best doctors because of tort reform. I stated before that it didn't have teeth, well I retract that
. Even though I think it doesn't have the teeth it should it has caused a decrease in the cost of doctors doing business. Mal practice insurance is cheaper here by more than half what it is in Florida. It should be nation wide because it has become a national problem. If doctors get greedy,put a muzzle on them. That is not the American way but they are licensed to serve not to steal. I think doctors should make big bucks and the same for good teachers.
If any one should be sued it should be teachers, thats my pet peave. The bad apples are making it difficult for the good ones, there is a lot of good ones out there, and just enough bad ones to make their job impossible. |
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ChuckDeaton
USA
373 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 14:49:36
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Just wait till the ox being gored belongs to you. A drunk maims your beloved, a hospital fails to check a blood type and it is your grand daughter that dies or an explosion burns your sister so bad she looks like an alligator.
It is me, you and our neighbors that serve on juries and 12 good people are the ones that decide. Lawyers only present their clients side of the story.
Sure a plaintiffs attorney gets 30/40/50% but would you work for 30%. I can answer that. |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 15:56:47
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In a way, I think we work for the root cause of the problem. Our industry is the source of the 'Deep Pocket$'. Were there no insurance money available, the cost of many things would be far less because Joe Lunchbox out there could not afford the prices out of his own pocket. Case in point are medicines. Compare the cost of potions and pills in Laredo, Texas and two blocks across the river in Neuvo Laredo, Mexico. Or in Niagra Falls, New York and across the river in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada. Eliminate the money bag and the cost of anything becomes affordable. Of course, there are downsides to consider and Chuck Deaton, above, hints at who pays for the mistakes. The real question is do we as a society want to assume ALL RESPONSIBILITY for our destiny and fate?
Insurance, as a concept, is supposed to be an affordable luxury not an overly expensive necessity. That the latter is now the norm and not the former is yet another sign of how warped our American culture has become. If anything in this world needs fixing FIRST, it is us, not some foreign wacko. |
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Justin
USA
137 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 17:09:46
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| Oh, I got it now, lets just sue Saddam ! |
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ChuckDeaton
USA
373 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 17:21:07
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I am handling a sewer claim, filthy water belched up out of the city sewer into the nursery at a church. The city, as all cities do has "tort immunity." The good people at the church are up in arms and laying the city low. At the same time they refuse to vote in higher taxes so that when the city sewer regurgitates its contents into the church down the street the loss can be paid by the city.
As for Saddam, I am for just actively watching, satelites, U-2s, Predators, until he does something that threatens this side of the world and then send a smart bomb, cruise missile, whatever, in groups if need be, and blast his donkey to the gates of hell. Then salt the ground. We don't want him or anybody like him back. But just premeditated murder, plain and simple, goes against my grain. In fact I think that premeditated murder goes against the grain of most Americans. |
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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 17:49:51
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First of all, Chuck, what the US and Brittain are going to do is not premeditated murder. What Saddam and his henchmen do everyday IS premeditated murder. WE are the good guys, HE is the bad guy. Why can't people get this simple fact. We are going to liberate Iraq and take away all his evil little toys BEFORE he can give them to one of his evil little friends. Would you rather that we wait until one of his allies releases chemicals or radiation in lower Manhattan making it uninhabitable for generations? Would that be enough for you? Do you wait until someone comes in and rapes your wife and children before you say "Oh, I guess I better lock the door now.
As for the tort reform issue. No one is saying we should deny people the right to recover economic losses. That is what should be done. What we are saying is we need to get rid of outrageous punative damages. That is where the big money is in these multimillion dollar judgements. If a person needs to be punnished it should be in the criminal court room, not the civil court room. If a person didn't break a law why is he being punished? |
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KileAnderson
USA
875 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2003 : 18:12:26
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| Oh, and as far as your comment on Jurys being you and me and our neighbors. Well, where I live, if you are a college educated white male, you will never be on a jury. I know, it's happened to me twice and every one of my friends at least once. |
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Stupid Lawsuits
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