At 06:46 AM 7/13/02, Jeroen wrote:
>At 07:15 13-07-2002 -0400, Tom Beck wrote:
>
>>What we really need, of course, is smarter jurors. Yeah, right.
>
>What the US really needs is to get rid of the jury system and let
>decisions about guilt/innocence and decisions about financial compensation
>be handled by people who actually have a Law degree, instead of having
>those decisions made by a bunch of untrained amateurs.
Recall that you are talking about the country in which books like "101 Uses
For a Dead Lawyer" were published . . .
>You could also do with some Federal guidelines about how much money
>someone can be awarded. For example, when you have suffered damage your
>compensation will consist of 100% of all your damages (such as medical
>bills, repair costs for damaged goods, legal costs, loss of income). If it
>reasonable to assume you have suffered lasting immaterial damage, you will
>also be awarded the amount of 10% of your real damages, with a maximum of
>$ 10,000.
>
>Of course, you will have to prove those expenses were really made, and
>compensation will be limited to the costs that are not covered under any
>form of insurance.
>
>That would make compensations more reasonable. I mean, when a minor
>accident with minimal damage can make a poor person a multi-millionaire
>almost overnight, something is definitely wrong with your legal system.
OTOH, some people say that the only way to get the message across to a huge
company which has sold a defective product which has injured someone is by
hitting them in the pocketbook with a large enough monetary award to
actually hurt them, and $10,000 or even $100,000 may be only a drop in the
bucket to the company.
--Ronn! :)
In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.
-- "A Princess of Mars," by Edgar Rice Burroughs
