Phatscotty wrote:frivolous law suits too. Always the rich suing the poor.
Please to post the frivolous law suits you refer too. Include the actual details, not the made up ones.
Now, compare that to the actual lawsuits against the corporations that caused actual damage and death to people though negligence and gross negligence.
The balance will make the damage caused by frivolous lawsuits seem quite....frivolous.
Name one frivolous lawsuit that caused suffering and cost the life of a child.
For each one you name, Ill post 100 lawsuits that were filed as the direct result of corporate negligence which resulted in the death of a child.
Frivolous lawsuits are just that frivolous and are obviously a bad thing. Typically though, the real frivolous ones never get very far. However, the real ones, the ones that are labeled frivolous, typically, when viewed with the actual details, and not the sound bites, are actually quite real, and there is a reason 12 jurors awarded the plaintiff a verdict, and often included penalties for the negligent party.
The McDonald's one is the most often quoted, though now that the facts have actually educated people, most know well enough to stay away from it.
The sound bite is stupid old lady spill coffee on herself while driving.
The actual story is that scalding hot coffee was served at a drive through by a corporation that full understood the dangers. The coffee was kept at that temperature however, because it cost money when people sat down and drank the coffee in the store, so they made it so hot as to encourage people to leave with it. The woman in question was served a beverage through a drive through that caused 3rd degree burns on her genitals.
She was doing nothing reckless. She was doing nothing wrong. One can certainly assume it may hurt if the spill coffee on themselves, but I dont think one should have to assume that the mere act of dropping a flimsy styrofoam cup, would result in 3rd degree burns requiring medical attention.
McDonalds knew the risk, but continued to serve the beverage at unsafe levels. I just thank god the lawsuit happened so that some poor kid, didnt accidentally grab his parents coffee and burn himself or herself.
Lawsuits are the only way to keep corporations accountable. You just made a thread about someone needing to be accountable, and now with your quip response, you suggest that lawsuits are more of a problem, than the reason the overwhelming majority are filed in the first place.
Certainly in any system, people will try to take advantage of the system, and effort should be made to insure they are. However, if you are truly worried about accountability, than you would not be fooled for the notion of tort reform, which is and always simply has been a ruse, to protect corporations and others from being responsible for their actions.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19150_6- ... -b.s..html
It is possible my opinion is skewed however. I live very close to one of the sites of one of the worst water poisoning cases the country has seen. I have spoken with a first hand witness who saw laws broken when toxic chemicals were dumped directly into the water supply. Those people, who absolutely contributed to the illnesses and deaths of children in the area, were never held accountable, and in because of this, others were no doubt emboldened by the fact, and more likely to do the same.
Ive also lived on a street in which half of the children got some form of cancer, one dying at age 26. This was absolutely the result of contaminated water, and there is no doubt someone very much should have been held accountable. The problem is, such cases are very difficult to prove. Cancer is an elusive disease, and the list of carcinogens is a long one, and even then, corporations decide to use them, simply because they are not held accountable enough. The only reason some are allowed to, is because they directly bribe the lawmakers of this country.
As you said, somebody definitely needs to be held accountable, and the rich in many cases, are the ones.
