Sue-happy stupid
by Miki Saxon
The US is considered the most litigious society in the world. I used to wonder if the level of bad judgment/selfishness/ greed/immoral/stupid/etc., reasoning behind many lawsuits here was also found in other countries, then I realized that people are people so they probably were.I never researched the question (it didn’t warrant the time), but a bit of proof for my assumption came my way a few days ago not surprisingly from the country with the second highest number of lawyers per capita: US: Lawyers: 1,143,358 Pop: 303MM P/L:265; Spain Lawyers:114,143 Pop: 45MM P/L:395
Here’s the story, “A speeding motorist who killed a teenage cyclist is suing the boy’s parents over damage to his luxury car, the government says.”
The driver was going 100 mph in a 55 mph zone and the boy wasn’t wearing reflective clothing so the court found them equally at fault. (I find the ‘equal’ hard to swallow.)
“Delgado, whose insurance company paid Iriondo’s parents $48,500 in compensation for their son’s life, filed a suit in late 2006 to recover $29,400 in damages to his car and car rental costs, the ministry traffic report said…”It’s the only way I have to claim my money back,” Delgado was quoted as saying…”
Yup, people are people the world over and all the reasons listed above are alive and well and living abroad.
Do you know of a lawsuit that fits this profile?
Your comments—priceless
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February 2nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I can’t believe this but it must be true. Actually, I don’t want to believe it. First of all, it’s the insurance company who paid the parents. And even if it weren’t, would you actually have the face to sue the people whose son you accidentally killed? I’ve never heard of such a lawsuit but I do remember vaguely a show that copied this exact scenario. I can’t even imagine what the victim’s family went through and how the court could allow such a thing to proceed.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Jay, I totally agree. But then I don’t understand how the court could find them EQUALLY guilty in the first place.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:50 am
This kind of stuff happens all of the time, sadly (writes the lawyer), in varying degrees.
What has happened all over the world – fueled by greedy plaintiffs and insurance companies – is that people have begun to equate bad things happening with actionable. It’s easy to blame lawyers when this stuff happens (and I am a tax lawyer, not a plaintiff’s attorney and have no love for most litigators) but the reality is that if folks wouldn’t bring these suits, it wouldn’t be an industry.
My favorite suit of late is still the crazy judge who sued the dry cleaners over his lost pants: $67 millon. He did not win.
People feel that they should be compensated for everything bad that happens, no matter how much they might be at fault, too. And they’ve been jerked around by insurance companies for so long that the mentality is, “It’s not real money, the insurance company is paying.”
If I had to guess, the guy in the story above probably filed a claim for his car and the insurance company advised him to sue. BTW the guy finally dropped the lawsuit.
February 4th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Kelly, I agree that stupidity and greed drive frivolous lawsuits, but the audacity of suing the parents of the kid you kill went way beyond any bounds I can think of.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Such bad judgment would be greatly reduced if courts were not a monopoly. Every monopoly is bad; and a monopoly is worse when it is run by bureaucrats.
In a free-market economy, a judge making such poor decision would be out of business. Historically, disputes have been settled by private courts. The Anglo-Saxon kings began centralizing the law one they realized that they could use the legal system to collect revenues. Also, government law is convenient to get favorable judgments against people refusing to pay taxes. There are many great books about the history of private courts.
The book “Market for Liberty” by Morris and Tannehill available in audio at http://freekeene.com/free-audiobook/ describes how a society of liberty would handle law. Another book is http://www.mises.org/store/Enterprise-of-Law-The-Justice-without-the-State-P297.aspx
One of my favorite books is the “Ethics of Liberty” available in MP3 at http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=95.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hi Daniel, thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation.
Sorry I can’t agree with you regarding the courts. Most judges are elected, so we can throw them out any time. As to the taxes, I get very tired of people not wanting to pay taxes, yet they seem very happy taking advantage of the services those taxes fund, such as police, fire, and medical emergency services, roads, etc. The list is very long. I find the larger problem is the way the money is spent by the idiots we elect.