Edwards!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Flint

If corporation X can save .005 pennies per unit by using a cheaper material, that also makes their product slightly less stable, slightly more dangerous, and they do so with the full knowledge that this will increase the risks of death or injury in the consumer by a specific amount, the they have put a price on your child's life.

If politicians put damage caps on lawsuits, taking away the threat of financial punishment to the corporation, and making it more profitble for them to produce less safe products, then they have put a price on your child's life.

It isn't a choice you get to make, they make it for you (so there's no purpose in your feeling squeamish about it, it's out of your hands). The only question is: do you want it to be easy for them to keep harming people? Do you want them to knowingly profit from the death of your child, or someone just like you? Or, do you want to make this happen less often, by having the ability to strike back when wrong has been done?

Well, that sounds like a noble cause..... but not reality.
Personal injury cases don't seek and punish the guilty, they seek the money. Edwards sued the pool drain cover company because he knew there was little chance of a big payout by suing the municipal workers that installed the cover improperly. A jury is more conservative in awarding big bucks from a local community and it's local workers than from faceless evil corporations.

Another case I know personally. A plumbing company wins a contract to install the sprinkler system in a Philly high rise building. The system is designed by the architect, approved by the city code dept and installed as designed. After installation, it's inspected and tested by the general contractor, city code inspectors, and then again by Factory Mutual, an agent for the insurance industry to protect their risk in insuring the building.

Several years later there is a fire on a high floor in which three firemen tragically die.
The General contractor was no longer in business as it in common practice to dissolve after each project is finished. The insurance company paid the building owners the maximum of their liability. The building owners filed bankruptsy.
Who gets sued? The plumbing company, even though they did absolutely nothing wrong.
Again, it's harder to get millions from the city than a faceless corporation.

My disdain for personal injury lawyers is not what they do basically bad, but the way they do it is all about the money and justice be damned. They drive the cost of doing business, sky high. That's why a simple item like a lawn mower, chainsaw or ladder, things impossible to make idiot proof, are more expensive than they should be.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Who gets sued? The plumbing company, even though they did absolutely nothing wrong.
Again, it's harder to get millions from the city than a faceless corporation.

How did the case turn out? Did the jury rule against an innocent party? If so, shame on the jury.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, they bankrupted the plumbing company with an huge award.
When you parade the children of three dead fireman, the jury melts.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

My disdain for personal injury lawyers is not what they do basically bad, but the way they do it is all about the money and justice be damned. They drive the cost of doing business, sky high.

And then we have the complete opposite. In the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire where hundreds died, the Governor’s report blamed the victims for their deaths. The club was bankrupt and no money to compensate the victims. Then an attorney took up the case pro-bono. That is only when we learned about the aluminum wiring, installation in violation of standard practice, etc. So the lawyer went after the electrical contractor, the builders, others who did not really understand the danger, etc. Although they did not get much, at least the victims got some compensation because the lawyer did same thing.

Meanwhile we learned about this disaster being created all across the nation in aluminum electrical wire. Done only because price of copper had increased. Done without any consideration for high risk to human life.

Those in Cincinnati well know about the Beverly Hills Supper Club. Many who don't should learn why the Kentucky state investigation blamed the victims for their own death AND why a lawyer used those same tactics to bring justice. For all we know, that lawyer may have saved your life.