# "I was speeding, hit your kid and killed him. So I'll sue you." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 15, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745 "2010-11-15T15:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/1 "2010-11-15T15:20:36Z")
[Story here](http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Man-Who-Killed-Teen-Sues-Victims-Parents-108156864.html) Since the dead child was riding a bicycle without wearing a helmet, the speeder who killed him is suing the parents for $15K, claiming contriubtory negligence and pain and suffering. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/2 "2010-11-15T15:26:16Z")
It’s a _pro se_ lawsuit for God’s sake. By a prisoner. This is far from the most stupid one filed that day, let alone ever. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/3 "2010-11-15T15:27:18Z")
Meh, guy’s a douche. Ain’t no law ‘gainst bein’ a douche. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/4 "2010-11-15T15:30:54Z")
But there’s no law against pitting a douche, either. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/5 "2010-11-15T15:36:01Z")
This reminds me of a case on Judge Judy. The teenaged daughters of both the plaintiff and defendant got into a car crash in the plaintiff’s car. The defendant’s daughter was killed. The plaintiff was suing for damages to the car. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/6 "2010-11-15T15:39:59Z")
I grieve for the parents. I do. But I was bothered by the mother’s quote in the story. “Prisoners have too many rights”? And, frankly, the fact that they sued an indigent prisoner for $15,000 seems a little clueless, like poking a snake with a stick. What were they expecting to get, his cigarettes? ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/7 "2010-11-15T15:44:58Z")
That’s the part of it that was most confusing to me. If they were suing, I’d assume they’d go for a lot more than $15,000 in a death by a drunk driver case, whether he could pay it or not. The low amount makes me think it might well be the parents’ insurance company that sued him presuming he was driving without insurance (or the insurance didn’t pay because he was drunk). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/8 "2010-11-15T16:02:38Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Meh, guy’s a douche. Ain’t no law ‘gainst bein’ a douche. My God, can you imagine if there were? A law against being a douche, and stupid being painful - this would change EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING, I SAY! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/9 "2010-11-15T16:05:52Z")
I’m no lawyer, but the countersuit that the prisoner is bringing against the boy’s family sounds like a suit to make the original suit go away. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/10 "2010-11-15T16:12:59Z")
My guess is more, **Cat Whisperer** , it’s a suit because the prisoner is bored as hell and wanted something to do. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/11 "2010-11-15T16:17:13Z")
Would the prisoner have come up with the idea of a countersuit on his own, or would his lawyer have suggested it, do you figure? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/12 "2010-11-15T16:19:56Z")
If it’s _pro se_, he doesn’t have a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/13 "2010-11-15T16:21:14Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Would the prisoner have come up with the idea of a countersuit on his own, or would his lawyer have suggested it, do you figure? People have a lot of time on their hands in prison, and file a lot of baseless law suits. It’s free, and sitting in the library writing a law suit beats being sodomized in the showers, I would imagine. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/14 "2010-11-15T16:52:56Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > I grieve for the parents. I do. But I was bothered by the mother’s quote in the story. “Prisoners have too many rights”? And, frankly, the fact that they sued an indigent prisoner for $15,000 seems a little clueless, like poking a snake with a stick. What were they expecting to get, his cigarettes? I don’t know. If I were being sued by the murderer of my child for negligence, I probably wouldn’t be overly sympathetic about the rights of prisoners either. Having said that, I can only hope that this guy drops the soap in the shower. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/15 "2010-11-15T18:03:21Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > I grieve for the parents. I do. But I was bothered by the mother’s quote in the story. “Prisoners have too many rights”? And, frankly, the fact that they sued an indigent prisoner for $15,000 seems a little clueless, like poking a snake with a stick. What were they expecting to get, his cigarettes? Assuming he was insured, his insurer would be the one paying, not him. The $15,000 figure says “policy limit claim” to me. Any judgment over that amount would be assessed against him directly, but if he’s got no money there’s no point making a claim over the policy limit. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’m no lawyer, but the countersuit that the prisoner is bringing against the boy’s family sounds like a suit to make the original suit go away. Probably a counter_claim_, not a countersuit. That means the same judge and jury would hear it, during the same trial. That said, contributory negligence is a defense, not a claim, so probably the article has it totally wrong and that’s just one of his defenses. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/16 "2010-11-15T18:54:15Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > And, frankly, the fact that they sued an indigent prisoner for $15,000 seems a little clueless, like poking a snake with a stick. What were they expecting to get, his cigarettes? Insurance companies typically require their clients to attempt to obtain damages from the actual perpetrators of damage before turning to the insurance company to pay. The suit might have been filed without much hope of collecting in order to establish due diligence in that regard. For that matter, the insurance company might have initiated the suit as SOP. It’s also possible that the family of the deceased isn’t entirely convinced that the perpetrator is indigent, and want to have a claim on any assets that turn up. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/17 "2010-11-15T19:07:03Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > I grieve for the parents. I do. But I was bothered by the mother’s quote in the story. “Prisoners have too many rights”? And, frankly, the fact that they sued an indigent prisoner for $15,000 seems a little clueless, like poking a snake with a stick. What were they expecting to get, his cigarettes? > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Assuming he was insured, his insurer would be the one paying, not him. The $15,000 figure says “policy limit claim” to me. Any judgment over that amount would be assessed against him directly, but if he’s got no money there’s no point making a claim over the policy limit. If he were insured, wouldn’t his insurance company be defending against the claim? And both suits are for “more than $15,000,” which makes the policy limit theory a bit less likely, as does the remoteness of the possibility that his insurance company (if he has one) would deny the claim, making the parents’ lawsuit necessary in the first place, as does also the likelihood that with his history of drunken driving, he may have been uninsurable. My theory stands: yes, the prisoner’s lawsuit is fueled by boredom and ignorance, but its main motivation is that he’s pissed off about being sued in the first place, and given the history of prison lawsuits, suing him was ill-considered in the first place. However, there is the possibility that they only sued because their insurance company required them to make an effort to collect from him before they would pay out. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/18 "2010-11-15T19:23:25Z")
I was hit by a drunk driver with no insurance. My insurance company sued him while he was in prison to recover the cost of their payments to me. I would think it highly likely that is the situation here. By accepting the payments from the insurance company for P&S ($500 I seem to recall) I waived my own right to sue the drunk assclown. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/19 "2010-11-15T19:49:20Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > If he were insured, wouldn’t his insurance company be defending against the claim? And both suits are for “more than $15,000,” which makes the policy limit theory a bit less likely, as does the remoteness of the possibility that his insurance company (if he has one) would deny the claim, making the parents’ lawsuit necessary in the first place, as does also the likelihood that with his history of drunken driving, he may have been uninsurable. What? You can file a lawsuit whether or not they deny your claim. If it’s denied, you seek benefits; if it isn’t, you seek _more_ benefits (or a settlement). ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745/20 "2010-11-15T20:46:27Z")
I think an anonymous comment on the linked story pretty much nails the whole thing on the head: > [@](#): > > It’s not a suit, or a counter-suit…it is an answer. The author clearly does not understand the subject and construed it in the most sensational way. > > Contributory negligence is a defense to a lawsuit for negligence. > > The guy is not suing anyone for anything. He is the one being sued. He is being sued for negligently causing the death of the child. He is not denying guilt. His response is an admission that he caused the death due to negligence - but - that he was not 100% responsible. > > The child died from head injuries which the defendant admits that he caused. He is asking the court to consider whether or not the parent’s failure to make sure their child wore a helmet contributed to the child’s death. If it is, he is only partly to blame; a jury will decide how much. > > To refuse this defense would permit anyone to ignore any safety rules. Construction workers wouldn’t need to wear hard hats, people would not have to put locks on their guns, people wouldn’t have to leash their dogs, people could ignore traffic laws. They would always be able to blame someone else, completely irrespective of their own conduct. > > Judges and lawyers may have sympathy, the law may not. So where you are free to feel bad for this child and his parents, and free to hate the criminal, you cannot call this an injustice unless it is also unjust to hold a parent responsible if they allow their children to play with a loaded gun. It is literally the same thing. > > Is it reasonable to allow a child of 14 to ride his bike outside the direct supervision of his parents? That depends on his mental capacity. Did the parents provide a helmet and explain the dangers of riding a bike without one? Will a medical expert conclude that the child would have died even with a helmet? If, at 80 mph, the helmet would not have made any difference, there will be no defense. The question is who is responsible, and how much? 50/50? 80/20? 99/1? 100/0? A jury will decide. > > All this could/should have been in the story. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-speeding-hit-your-kid-and-killed-him-so-ill-sue-you/560745.md?page=2)