Crash victim gets $43 million award (Ford crash lawsuit)

GoEdwardsville.com ^ | April 20, 2005 | Steve Horrell

[2banana]

Why American business leaves America...

[2banana]

Why American business leaves America...

[Atlas Sneezed]

How soon until the usual suspects start blaming the lawyers, forgetting the responsibility of the idiot judge and moronic jury, and that there was a team of lawyers arguing against this absurd verdict?

[bmwcyle]

Maybe Ford needs to move the fuel tank under the seat.

[b4its2late]

Tort Reform!!!!!!

[Sthitch]

They are all to blame. We need tort reform today to stop this nonsense.

[CSM]

Atlas will soon shrug.

I wish someone would point me to the gulch.

[faloi]

Be sure to check out Overlawyered. They've got a lot of interesting tidbits about Madison County, it's apparently a real friendly place to bring a lawsuit. This is likely something that'll get struck down, or at least reduced on appeal. And it's just kind of a cool site to read about current legal matters.

[stainlessbanner]

bttt

[Rakkasan1]

brain dead motorist ping

[Little Pig]

"...point me to the gulch."

Let me know when you find it.

[mlc9852]

We have appellate courts.

[Crawdad]

Are you hurt? Do you need money? I'll take the case. Next?

[Squawk 8888]

This is likely something that'll get struck down, or at least reduced on appeal.

True, but the problem is (1) the costs borne by the defence in bringing the case to an appeal and (2) the chill on other defendents who settle meritless claims because of the risks involved in taking a claim to a jury. What you really need is loser pay, something that's always been around in Canada and works reasonably well.

[Spktyr]

There are a lot of cars out there with this gas tank configuration. It's no more or less unsafe than other designs; my Z carries a 19 gallon tank aft of the rear IRS, but before the bumper, and it's not been considered unsafe. I've not seen any argument yet (that made sense) that explained why the Town Car/Crown Vic/Grand Marquis tank design is any less safe than, say, the Cadillac Fleetwood, Jaguar XJ8. or the BMW 7-series' is. Anyone seen one?

[LA-Lawyer]

I have only one thing to say:

WAHOOOO!!!!!

Seriously, did everyone read right past the portion of the article that said Ford knew of the increased risk of explosion by placing the fuel tank behind the axle and chose not to spend $10 per car on a recall to move it? This is bean counting at its worst that placed unecessary risks to the consumer. The verdict is high, and will be reduced on appeal, but come on, this case was meritorious.

[Logophile]

How soon until the usual suspects start blaming the lawyers, forgetting the responsibility of the idiot judge and moronic jury, and that there was a team of lawyers arguing against this absurd verdict?

Why not blame the lawyers? The "idiot judge" who permitted this case to go before a "moronic jury" is most likely a lawyer himself.

[ruiner]

I do know one thing, getting ANYTHING done to your car for under $10 is IMPOSSIBLE.

Seriously, think about it.

[sharkhawk]

Do you really think that it would only cost $10.00 to move the gas tank in a recall? Secondly, if they did recall the cars there would be an appropiate spot to move it. The car was engineered with the gas tank in a specific spot, no other spot would be as well protected.