Is the USA a lawsuit-happy country or what!

[Trailboss49]

The USA has the best legal system that money can buy. What it doesn't have is a justice system.

[General Staff]

Originally Posted by Trailboss49

The USA has the best legal system that money can buy. What it doesn't have is a justice system.

In my experience that's because nobody can afford it.

[Geek44]

It's not just the US. There's (another) couple here suing their kid's school because he flunked out. If I were the legal rep for the school, my defence would be very simple. 'You can lead a child to knowledge but you cannot make him learn'.
Peace.

[Jim O]

Nick,

Here they sue the schools for flunking a kid, and they sue for passing and graduating a kid who can't read. While the latter group may have more of a case, the schools cannot win.

Lung cancer has devastated my family but even though the tobacco companies were underhanded in how they developed and marketed their products, no one forced anyone to smoke or chew or not to quit. Families have been awarded millions in our wonderful "tort system". Hardly a system, more like a lottery.

[General Staff]

Originally Posted by Geek44

It's not just the US. There's (another) couple here suing their kid's school because he flunked out. If I were the legal rep for the school, my defence would be very simple. 'You can lead a child to knowledge but you cannot make him learn'.
Peace.

Look on the bright side. Another chance for a new financial derivative- 'Graduation Insurance'. You could even choose the grade, the higher grades obviously costing more with market prices set by parents and schools trading childrens' futures.

Flunking out gets you the lawyer of your choice to pursue for free. Could give a whole new meaning to 'class action lawsuit'.

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by General Staff

Could give a whole new meaning to 'class action lawsuit'.

Good one!

[Geek44]

Originally Posted by Jim O

Nick,

Here they sue the schools for flunking a kid, and they sue for passing and graduating a kid who can't read. While the latter group may have more of a case, the schools cannot win.

Lung cancer has devastated my family but even though the tobacco companies were underhanded in how they developed and marketed their products, no one forced anyone to smoke or chew or not to quit. Families have been awarded millions in our wonderful "tort system". Hardly a system, more like a lottery.

Both my parents died from smoking related illnesses. My mother started smoking in 1958 and maybe had her last cigarette just before she became too weak to lift the damn things to her mouth. I, until around four years ago, have basically been smoking since I was conceived. I took up actively smoking 'my own' smoke when I was sixteen. Before then it was my parents' secondary smoke and in-utero. It's taken me four years to reach where I am now...I still wear a full-strength patch every day. The bastards are so hard to quit for some people including myself. My mother admitted that she knew all along that cigarettes were dangerous...right from the start. She just chose to risk it. By now, I can really only say I haven't smoked a cigarette in the last maybe three months. If I hadn't had kids, I'd probably be smoking right now and bugger the risk. With all the active and passive smoking I've done and been subjected to, any illusion that I will live to a ripe old age is just that...an illusion. Even if I never fall off the wagon again.
I guess my point here is that any pretence by the tobacco companies that their product was 'safe' or had no 'proven link' to the health problems people experienced has always been false. They're able to hide behind the legal mumbo-jumbo and employ better legal representation than victims who are also struggling to pay for expensive medical care. What boggles my mind is that they're still legal when way more people die from smoking related illness in this country per year (around 100,000) than those that die from herion related illnesses (around 350). IMO, the same applies to alcohol. Governments are hypocrites. At least herion (when pure) doesn't damage the body in any detectable way...and that's a fact. But I digress....