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Originally Posted by UGAalum94
It makes more sense to me to go after deep pockets defendants for the reasons you mention when there are real, somewhat objective damages or costs to care for the injured person although I still think it's more of a mistake than you do*. But in a case like the subject of this thread, what would it mean to make people whole? I have less faith than you do that a jury will make an appropriate determination.
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Take it up with your state legislature. They could abolish dignity torts if they wanted to. And for the umpteenth time, just because a plaintiff asks for $1 million doesn't mean that they're going to get anything close to that. In fact, if this thing goes to trial and I'm the defense attorney, I'm going to ask the plaintiff to justify to the jury exactly how they came to the $3 million number. In fact, a good defense theme might be 'although the plaintiff arguably suffered a wrong, it does not mean she has hit a gold mine.' (or something to that effect). My point is that again, there doesn't have to be any basis whatsoever for requesting certain relief... it's just words on paper.
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*I think we might be better off having some sort of general insurance pool to cover real damages rather than expecting the nearest deep pocket to pay. I think there's societal harm in the belief that if you perceive yourself as injured, the best thing to do is magnify your injuries in a court case and seek payment from whomever you can get it from. But honestly, I don't sit around thinking about this a whole lot.
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We do that with our cars. Just about every state requires you to carry insurance. I know some are starting to require folks to carry major medical. I don't think, however, for intentional torts, that those should necessarily be insurable. If you attempt to murder me, on purpose, I ought to be able to sue you for everything you're worth. It only seems fair that it should be you, the party who injured me that has the burden of making me whole rather than some general insurance pool. Would it be fair, since your sentence is 10 years that 3,650 people be chosen at random and have to each serve a day of your sentence?
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I do know there are a lot of auto accident suits that occur or escalate beyond settlement that seem to reflect a desire to get more money than one probably really deserves. While people need to be able to seek relief from their injuries, injuries shouldn't be regarded as a lottery ticket and I don't think the whole personal injury law phenomena is totally made up.
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As someone who handles personal injury cases (we don't actively seek them out, but I get saddled with the ones that come through the door), I have yet to see someone get rich in a personal injury settlement. In fact, more often than not, the injured party has to either take the insurance company's check (and take a hickey) or take his chances with a jury which might award him nothing... not to mention have to put up with the difficulty of a defendant who has no assets or exempt assets to go after with a judgment.
Personal injury law, quite honestly, is a huge pain in the ass for everyone involved. The insurance companies always somehow manage to turn a profit.
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