3 ms·

"Non-us" is awful broad- where exactly? Are you claiming that there are no non-US jurisdictions that have similar liability laws?

gambiting 10y ago
I lived in a few EU countries so far, all of them with national health insurance. If someone got hurt in your backyard, then they would be taken to a hospital and....no bill would ever be produced. No one would even bother asking if you have house insurance, because any cost of treatment would be covered by the national health cover. I don't think my house insurance even includes coverage for things like this because it's so unheard of. Someone could still sue you for damage to their health, but first of all - court could order at most payment for any extra treatment(that's not already paid for by national health insurance) or maybe perceived loss of income. Multi-million-dollar cases where the actual loss is nowhere near that are not really a thing outside of US.
- ensignavenger 10y ago
  Thanks for the details. In the US, typical judgments go beyond just medical expenses. (pain and suffering, loss of work, etc) I think it will vary a lot between different states, too. I think a lot of the reason for this is because of insurance- I bet people that don't have insurance are far less likely to be sued for these types of incidents. But with the advent of insurance, has come an attitude of "oh well, they have insurance, so it won't cost them anything, it'll just be the insurance company that pays for it!". The insurance companies in turn use these large settlements/judgments to support their case for why you NEED their product. That is my theory, any way.
Spooky23 10y ago
The US is more difficult because you no national health insurance. Accident liability for healthcare are bucketed with health insurance, general liability insurance, auto insurance or workers compensation. If you hit a certain threshold with certain conditions, the insurance companies will try to pin the blame on somebody else. When I had back surgery ($$$), they had investigators look into my background and called under various guises in an attempt to get me to say that I was injured in a minor car accident a few years earlier. Fortunately while I was present at the accident, I wasn't in the car (some dope slammed into my car in a parking lot). In the meantime, I was at risk of having care cutoff, as they refused to pay claims.
fsloth 10y ago
I'm from Finland. First, if someone came to jump on my trampoline and got hurt, the last thing they would do is to sue me. Secondly, if I did not intentionally and actively try to harm them it's quite hard to imagine a situation where I would have to pay damages - and in the unlikely case I had to the payment would be probably be a couple of thousands of euros (based on my cursory and anecdotal experience). The only way to clock in millions of euros as penalty here would be some mini-enron like financial crime. It would also be pretty insane to predatorily sue me for millions of euros. There is nowhere that money could come from. Generally public healthcare would pick up the tab on most medical costs (sans some mostly insignificant fees).
- kasey_junk 10y ago
  > Generally public healthcare would pick up the tab on most medical costs (sans some mostly insignificant fees). This gets to the heart of the problem. In the US this is not an option, so even people who generally are not litigious can need to sue in order to make sure medical bills are payed appropriately. Even with that, personal injury settlements that clock into the millions of euros would be extreme outliers in the USA. It would involve severe death and dismemberment as well as punitive action by the civil court process.

gambiting 10y ago

I lived in a few EU countries so far, all of them with national health insurance. If someone got hurt in your backyard, then they would be taken to a hospital and....no bill would ever be produced. No one would even bother asking if you have house insurance, because any cost of treatment would be covered by the national health cover. I don't think my house insurance even includes coverage for things like this because it's so unheard of. Someone could still sue you for damage to their health, but first of all - court could order at most payment for any extra treatment(that's not already paid for by national health insurance) or maybe perceived loss of income. Multi-million-dollar cases where the actual loss is nowhere near that are not really a thing outside of US.

ensignavenger 10y ago
Thanks for the details. In the US, typical judgments go beyond just medical expenses. (pain and suffering, loss of work, etc) I think it will vary a lot between different states, too. I think a lot of the reason for this is because of insurance- I bet people that don't have insurance are far less likely to be sued for these types of incidents. But with the advent of insurance, has come an attitude of "oh well, they have insurance, so it won't cost them anything, it'll just be the insurance company that pays for it!". The insurance companies in turn use these large settlements/judgments to support their case for why you NEED their product. That is my theory, any way.

Spooky23 10y ago

The US is more difficult because you no national health insurance. Accident liability for healthcare are bucketed with health insurance, general liability insurance, auto insurance or workers compensation. If you hit a certain threshold with certain conditions, the insurance companies will try to pin the blame on somebody else. When I had back surgery ($$$), they had investigators look into my background and called under various guises in an attempt to get me to say that I was injured in a minor car accident a few years earlier. Fortunately while I was present at the accident, I wasn't in the car (some dope slammed into my car in a parking lot). In the meantime, I was at risk of having care cutoff, as they refused to pay claims.

fsloth 10y ago

I'm from Finland. First, if someone came to jump on my trampoline and got hurt, the last thing they would do is to sue me. Secondly, if I did not intentionally and actively try to harm them it's quite hard to imagine a situation where I would have to pay damages - and in the unlikely case I had to the payment would be probably be a couple of thousands of euros (based on my cursory and anecdotal experience). The only way to clock in millions of euros as penalty here would be some mini-enron like financial crime. It would also be pretty insane to predatorily sue me for millions of euros. There is nowhere that money could come from. Generally public healthcare would pick up the tab on most medical costs (sans some mostly insignificant fees).

kasey_junk 10y ago
> Generally public healthcare would pick up the tab on most medical costs (sans some mostly insignificant fees). This gets to the heart of the problem. In the US this is not an option, so even people who generally are not litigious can need to sue in order to make sure medical bills are payed appropriately. Even with that, personal injury settlements that clock into the millions of euros would be extreme outliers in the USA. It would involve severe death and dismemberment as well as punitive action by the civil court process.