4 ms·

Interesting that in general, such personal accident insurance isn't widespread today. Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example, suing mcdonald

Interesting that in general, such personal accident insurance isn't widespread today. Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example, suing mcdonalds for hot coffee. However, if I have my arm eaten off by a crocodile tomorrow and I can no longer do my job, I wouldn't be covered by anything. Can't sue a crocodile.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago
Whoever owned the land didn’t tell you with an easily viewable sign that there are crocodiles nearby. You have a liable party now! Why do you think California puts a label on everything saying it could cause cancer? Plus disability insurance should cover this?
- toast0 3y ago
  > Why do you think California puts a label on everything saying it could cause cancer? Not to reduce liability related to the exposure. But because the voters passed a proposition that demands it. If you are harmed from the exposure in a way you can conclusively show, the prop 65 label won't absolve liability.
Ylpertnodi 3y ago
>Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example, suing mcdonalds for hot coffee. Considerably more to the story than that. Poor example with no valid example.
- Wistar 3y ago
  “As a result of her injuries, Ms. Liebeck spent eight days in a hospital. In that time she underwent expensive treatments for third-degree burns including debridement (removal of dead tissue) and skin grafting.” Public Citizen: “Legal Myths: The McDonald’s ‘Hot Coffee’ Case.” https://www.citizen.org/article/legal-myths-the-mcdonalds-hot-coffee-case/ https://www.citizen.org/article/legal-myths-the-mcdonalds-ho...
  - mindslight 3y ago
    I find myself going back and forth every time I read about this case. Those informed about the case aren't really questioning the harm, but rather the responsibility. In my experience many people want coffee and food to be as hot as possible, especially old people. Personally I have to wait for coffee to cool down before I drink it, but maybe I'll get there. Now perhaps McDonald's should give customers a choice of temperatures, shouldn't be serving such hot coffee from the drive thru, should add the cream/sugars before giving it to customers, should have rigid coffee cups that won't collapse when the lid is removed, or something else to reduce/prevent/discourage that specific type of situation. But it seems the main component of liability here was simply the coffee's temperature, which is something many customers actually want.
mistrial9 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform
DavidPeiffer 3y ago
>However, if I have my arm eaten off by a crocodile tomorrow and I can no longer do my job, I wouldn't be covered by anything. Can't sue a crocodile. Isn't this what disability insurance is for? Every company I've worked for has offered disability insurance at no cost. Is it the best disability insurance available? Probably not. But it would cover a crocodile eating your arm.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  A lot of life insurance plans also cover dismemberment, too. Current job says my literal arm and a leg is ~$80,000. $120,000 if it's done by a trolley.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jrockway 3y ago
As many other comments mention, that's not really a fair summary of the McDonald's case. If this were to happen today, you'd go to the hospital who would bill your health insurance. Your health insurance would then ask how you got burned, and would probably sue McDonald's for the medical costs. Again, as the other comments mention, it's common to have insurance against accidents that prevent you from doing your job. I don't recall having this at startups, but I might not have been paying attention. At big companies, there are short term and long term disability insurance. Depending on what field you're in, you could probably do an office job with one arm. Chording one-hand keyboard, probably up to 85% pre-accident productivity. Things that should keep you up at night are things like "what if I hit my head on a doorway and my brain is damaged to the point that I can't do my office job anymore". While unlikely, having insurance for that is great. Finally, people can have personal liability insurance (and probably do through their renters or homeowners policies) to cover inadvertently causing financial losses to other people. Say someone comes into your house and your bookshelf falls over on them. It's kind of your fault, so you have insurance for that.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago

Whoever owned the land didn’t tell you with an easily viewable sign that there are crocodiles nearby. You have a liable party now! Why do you think California puts a label on everything saying it could cause cancer? Plus disability insurance should cover this?

toast0 3y ago
> Why do you think California puts a label on everything saying it could cause cancer? Not to reduce liability related to the exposure. But because the voters passed a proposition that demands it. If you are harmed from the exposure in a way you can conclusively show, the prop 65 label won't absolve liability.

Ylpertnodi 3y ago

>Instead, people hope to find someone to sue - for example, suing mcdonalds for hot coffee. Considerably more to the story than that. Poor example with no valid example.

Wistar 3y ago
“As a result of her injuries, Ms. Liebeck spent eight days in a hospital. In that time she underwent expensive treatments for third-degree burns including debridement (removal of dead tissue) and skin grafting.” Public Citizen: “Legal Myths: The McDonald’s ‘Hot Coffee’ Case.” https://www.citizen.org/article/legal-myths-the-mcdonalds-hot-coffee-case/ https://www.citizen.org/article/legal-myths-the-mcdonalds-ho...
- mindslight 3y ago
  I find myself going back and forth every time I read about this case. Those informed about the case aren't really questioning the harm, but rather the responsibility. In my experience many people want coffee and food to be as hot as possible, especially old people. Personally I have to wait for coffee to cool down before I drink it, but maybe I'll get there. Now perhaps McDonald's should give customers a choice of temperatures, shouldn't be serving such hot coffee from the drive thru, should add the cream/sugars before giving it to customers, should have rigid coffee cups that won't collapse when the lid is removed, or something else to reduce/prevent/discourage that specific type of situation. But it seems the main component of liability here was simply the coffee's temperature, which is something many customers actually want.

mistrial9 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform

DavidPeiffer 3y ago

>However, if I have my arm eaten off by a crocodile tomorrow and I can no longer do my job, I wouldn't be covered by anything. Can't sue a crocodile. Isn't this what disability insurance is for? Every company I've worked for has offered disability insurance at no cost. Is it the best disability insurance available? Probably not. But it would cover a crocodile eating your arm.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago
A lot of life insurance plans also cover dismemberment, too. Current job says my literal arm and a leg is ~$80,000. $120,000 if it's done by a trolley.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

jrockway 3y ago

As many other comments mention, that's not really a fair summary of the McDonald's case. If this were to happen today, you'd go to the hospital who would bill your health insurance. Your health insurance would then ask how you got burned, and would probably sue McDonald's for the medical costs. Again, as the other comments mention, it's common to have insurance against accidents that prevent you from doing your job. I don't recall having this at startups, but I might not have been paying attention. At big companies, there are short term and long term disability insurance. Depending on what field you're in, you could probably do an office job with one arm. Chording one-hand keyboard, probably up to 85% pre-accident productivity. Things that should keep you up at night are things like "what if I hit my head on a doorway and my brain is damaged to the point that I can't do my office job anymore". While unlikely, having insurance for that is great. Finally, people can have personal liability insurance (and probably do through their renters or homeowners policies) to cover inadvertently causing financial losses to other people. Say someone comes into your house and your bookshelf falls over on them. It's kind of your fault, so you have insurance for that.