# Lawsuits as Lotteries **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 4, 2000, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010 "2000-09-04T22:25:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Origato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@Origato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Origato)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2000, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/1 "2000-09-04T22:25:03Z")
Please check the following URL, then read on: [http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/09/04/firestone.accident.01/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/09/04/firestone.accident.01/index.html) Sorry if that didn’t come through as a link… CNN targets Firestone prominently in this report. The point is that I predict a lawsuit will be filed regarding this unfortunate incident within a week or two, enough time for the VERY negligent father to recover from his (grief!). I surmise from the circumstances that the child that died was ejected from the vehicle, and probably was not wearing a seat belt. It appears that the Ford Explorer was overloaded as well. The most amazing aspect of all this is that the local Webb County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, in an amazing impersonation of a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, has already proclaimed Firestone Tire tread seperation as the cause of the accident. This is less than one day after the tragedy. Mark my words, this tort action will be filed, which Firestone will probably settle, but who has more fault? More importantly, who will gain? I pray for tort reform in Texas, and hope that eventually the many abuses are thoroughly punished. GO GWB!!! ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/2 "2000-09-05T00:37:24Z")
As long as there are lawyers, we will have ‘jackpot justice.’ I’m resigned to the fact that nothing is going to change. When a jury can hold GM liable for 4 billion dollars because the suing couple got hit by a drunk driver; or when a jury can award a fella 4 million because the BMW dealership touched up a paint scratch on a car before selling it… Anyway, what’s the use? I apologize for my cynical demeanor on this. I read the paper every day, and stuff like this is a weekly occurrence. Much of it is based on junk science (e.g., silicone implant lawsuits), or on the perception that a corporation must pay because, well, they _must_ be evil because they have so much money. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/3 "2000-09-05T01:46:43Z")
They are paying heavily because the corporations developed the bottom-line notion that if the potential costs of lawsuits pertaining to a defect cost less than fixing the defect, then fixing the defect will not be done. Juries rightly do not tolerate that kind of thinking. So they make sure the corporations will pay much more heavily in the lawsuits, in order to send the message: fixing potentially deadly and known defects in products will be much more cost-effective in the long run, to a company’s reputaion and to its financial bottom-line, than leaving those defects alone. ---
**Author:** ![Origato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@Origato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Origato)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/4 "2000-09-05T02:11:21Z")
Capacitor, you’re missing the point… BTW, here is an updated version of the story: [http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/09/04/firestone.accident.02/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/09/04/firestone.accident.02/index.html) This version is even more emphatic, “TEXAS POLICE SAY BLOWOUT CAUSED FATAL CRASH” or words to that effect. How the hell do they know that, exactly? It seems to me there would have to be a lot of forensic evidence, analysis, and study before one could make that kind of definitive statement. I am not saying that the management types at Firestone are any band of angels, but nevertheless they are easy targets for lawsuits at this point in time, are they not? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/5 "2000-09-05T05:25:23Z")
Um, in the BMW case, the dealership had concealed the fact that the car had been dropped in being unloaded from the ship and sustained severe frame damage that had been repaired, if memory serves. This would have been a serious safety issue. But still, four million is a bit much. I think replacing the car would have been sufficient. If the child was not buckled in, the family shouldn’t have a case. If the family knew the tires had been recalled, and were still driving on them, they shouldn’t have a case. But some lawyer probably will take it, and make a case out of it. BTW, this thread will probably attract some posts about the McDonald’s coffe lawsuit. I still maintain that this was **not** a frivolous suit. The restaraunt in question had the heater set at least ten degrees higher than Mc.D’s corporate standards (which I think is still too high). McD’s had knowingly served, as a bevarage, a liquid that was hot enough to cause second and third degree burns. They then refused to pay the woman’s medical expenses after she had been injured. People spill coffee on themselves. It’s a given. That coffee should not be so hot that when it is spilled, someone needs skin grafts. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/6 "2000-09-05T09:20:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Origato \* > \*\* > > This version is even more emphatic, “TEXAS POLICE SAY BLOWOUT CAUSED FATAL CRASH” or words to that effect. How the hell do they know that, exactly? It seems to me there would have to be a lot of forensic evidence, analysis, and study before one could make that kind of definitive statement.\*\* Maybe they saw that the tread had come off the new tires and it reminded them of the Firestone recall and all those other crashes, here and abroad, that were attributed to those tires? ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/7 "2000-09-05T12:26:06Z")
Obi, Texans are many things, but at least some of them, including that Sheriff’s Department, can put two and two together. Even in the worst of accidents tire treads don’t break apart like these did, unless something happened directly to the tire that caused the accident (will some experts here testify to that?). If it is ruled that the defective tire is partly responsible for the child’s death, then Firestone could be partly liable. They’ll then have to pay for part of what they are sued for, based on 10% liability to 50%. ---
**Author:** ![Squooshed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Squooshed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squooshed)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/8 "2000-09-05T14:41:52Z")
Well folks, you could live in good old Washington state. The law here requires people to wear seatbelts. But, when someone is in an accident and is hurt or killed because their not wearing a seatbelt, is it their fault? No. In Washington, a jury \*\* cannot be told \*\* that the idiot plaintiff was not weaing the seatbelt. They can’t be blamed for it. Yes, we reward people for idiocy here in Washington. Our new state motto: Dumb? Come live here. We’re reversing the laws of natural selection for your convenience. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2000, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/9 "2000-09-05T15:44:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Um, in the BMW case, the dealership had concealed the fact that the car had been dropped in being unloaded from the ship and sustained severe frame damage that had been repaired, if memory serves. This would have been a serious safety issue. But still, four million is a bit much. I think replacing the car would have been sufficient. **agisofia** , I don’t think the car had any frame damage at all; however, I won’t be able to say until I check the information I have at home. I’ll post again with the straight dope later (even if I’m wrong :)). ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawsuits-as-lotteries/32010/10 "2000-09-06T00:24:37Z")
(No, not _that_ Gore) Ok, I’m back with the scoop. > [@](#): > > Dr. Ira Gore sued BMW after discovering that his car had been slightly refinished because of acid rain damage received during its shipment from Germany. The cost of the refinishing job was $600. Yet an Alabama jury awarded Dr. Gore $4000 in economic damages and $4 million in punative damages, later reduced to $2 million by the state supreme court. The article presents quite a few cases in the Alabama court system that seem to be good evidence of jackpot justice. It is a very interesting article. It appeared in _The American Spectator_, which is conservative. The article uses factual evidence to support a political point. Therefore, there is the possibility of bias. If someone has evidence to counter the facts in the Gore case as quoted above, please post it for my edification.