http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_212205251.html: Teen passenger in speeding car sues driver who was hit These two kids who were drag-racing at 81mph on a 30mph zone collided with a woman driving a minivan, critically injuring her. The passenger of the speeding vehicle is now sueing the victim for his injuries. I cannot begin to comprehend just how in the world the insurance companies and lawyer let this suit be filed, and better yet, what is going on in the minds of the moral-less "parents" of these imbecile teens. This article on Digg
I wish I could say it only happens over there, but more and more of these kinda stupid law suits are happening. The worst side effect is the way people are so scared to put a foot wrong nowadays. There is a cafe up in the Dales near where I live that was a really nice little family run place and then something must have happened because suddenly there are signs everywhere. Danger, don't run. Danger, don't lean on fence. Danger bridge is narrow and my personal favourite: Danger, there might be DANGER! It's horrible. People need to learn to be accountable for their own actions again. Back to the days where if you crashed into a wall, it was your fault, and you couldn't sue the wall builder and the brick maker and the cement mixer and the current and previous owners. Perhaps at 16 we should all be forced to sign a common sense agreement. "I agree to use common sense"
I blame a lot of it on the adverts on TV "No Win No Fee", "Have You Had An Accident At Work", it makes people think "oo, I could get some cash from this". I'm not sure, could it also be a lack of respect? I recently snapped my achilles while playing football at a local sports complex, i'm sure I could have tried to claim, mabey i'm too honest? I have a friend who was knocked off his road bike, he was riding down a road as a car edged out a junction to get a better view round parked cars, he crashed into the passenger side wheel and went over the bonnet. The driver held his hands up and offered to pay up for the damage to the bike but my friend though no i'll take them to court and get more. In the end he got a bit less than the driver offered because the judge said he should have took the offer. The same friend is now in the process of taking a large bike wholesaler to court because the axle of one of his pedals snapped, this pedal is about 10 year old and he is about 18st (not much is fat, though a bit is). He rang them up, explained the axle snapped and ended up in a ditch and they said "what would you like us to do the pedal is well out the warrenty period", so now he's in a legal battle with them.
That friend sounds like a very nice chap. Anyone who tries to make such a ridiculous claim should have to pay the charges they are seeking to a "community pot" (yep, like in monopoly) and then when nice people do nice things. I should get all the money.
This case shows both what's wonderful and what's horrible about the US tort system. What's great: Anyone can sue anyone alleging any wrong. What's not: Anyone... can sue anyone else... alleging any wrong. I worked in a law office last summer, and one task involved copying a woman's medical history (over 800 pages!) to send to a new party in a lawsuit. She'd fallen down a flight of stairs which had been clogged with trash. Parties in the lawsuit included the owner, the cleaning service, insurance companies... but not only was she suing them, many filed suit against each other and the woman herself! These things routinely become quite complicated but these extra lawsuits often are dropped as settlements are reached. (This also goes to show how incompetent some lawyers are - not only do you file suit against the injured minivan driver, but you can't even use spell-check?)
Problem could be the injured passenger has no insurance so to cover there (perhaps) expensive medical bills they need to sue some one, since getting in the car your complicit with the driver you can't sue them. Also we don't know all the facts, the mini van may have ran a red light etc. I'm not defending them just pointing out that thanks to the American medical system there is perhaps more to this than the article would like to show.
in no way was it the min van drivers this is purely the fault of the driver of the speeding car. we have a few words for idiots like that in britain but I'm to polite to use them.
