3 ms·
Take a look at the number of ads you'll see for personal injury lawyers in the United States. Unfortunately it's a huge, thriving industry. I believe the "sue-h
by curiousgeorgio 7y ago
Take a look at the number of ads you'll see for personal injury lawyers in the United States. Unfortunately it's a huge, thriving industry. I believe the "sue-happiness" is a symptom of the overall legal landscape and public mindset rather than a consequence of high medical costs.
It seems the general idea in the US is that people are assumed to be idiots, so the burden is on companies to disclaim negligence or liability over accidents that might conceivably be unforeseen (by an idiot). Unless some kind of warning is placed on the cart itself (pointing out that it could tip over), it's not a stretch to think Home Depot might be found liable for a child hurting themselves in this situation[1]. All the carts in normal grocery stores are covered in similar warning signs.
Of course, some other countries tend to place a lot more confidence in the public's level of intelligence (and that's generally a good thing), but it can also be taken too far. The optimal legal landscape would probably use something in the middle of the "bubble-wrap everything" approach and the "jump at your own risk" approach.
[1] To answer your question "Would you personally sue them in such a case?": The answer is almost always "no". But those few rare cases where someone does sue can be incredibly costly for everyone involved. The only winners are the personal injury lawyers who often make money either way.
META: I know HN discourages commenting on voting, but there seems to be some odd downvote behavior going on that I haven't seen here before. I really can't imagine why this comment would get downvoted so much. To get this number of downvotes (let alone any votes this deep in a thread) in a short time smells of abusive behavior. I don't care about the points per se; it just makes me less inclined to contribute to discussions on HN when this stuff happens.
- bonoboTP 7y agoIt's difficult to understand America. On the one hand it's supposed to be individualist and emphasize everyone's own responsibility for their lives, and then there's this stuff, where everything needs to be full of warnings, otherwise people cannot be assumed to act reasonably. (The story of the woman comes to mind who microwaved a cat to death, with the intention of drying it and sued the manufacturer and won.)
- JamesBarney 7y agoThe microwaved cat to death story is an urban legend. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-microwaved-pet/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-microwaved-pet/
- JudgeWapner 7y agowhy is it unfortunate when citizens exercise their rights afforded to them under the constitution? Do you have a similar problem when corporations sue each other? I've never before seen so much compassion for insurance companies.
- curiousgeorgio 7y agoI didn't say anything about insurance companies, and I'm not referring to cases where a person sues their insurance company for failing to cover expenses, but rather when they sue a store or manufacturer directly for negligence. It's unfortunate that personal injury law firms make so much money by encouraging people to be "sue-happy" over dubious claims brought against companies that have little choice but to settle - not because they're doing anything seriously negligent (unless you subscribe to the bubble-wrap mentality), but because it costs less to settle and pay the plaintiff's fees than to properly defend the case in court. I have no problem with the constitutional rights that allow these things to happen (that's not the unfortunate part). The truly unfortunate part is that the success of these types of legal threats has gone beyond just protecting the innocent; it has quite literally changed the public's mindset from one of seeking justice to one of seeking gain at the opportunity provided by an accident.