Posted on 12/09/2005 10:01:11 PM PST by upchuck
Your #33
Unbelievable! And when someone gets assaulted leaving one of the other stores, can they sue her for stopping you from protecting the rest of them? Definately falls into the "what is this world coming to" category. Hope this turns out ok for you good and helpful citizens and hope she suffers some kind of punishment for her greedy and self centeredness.
But there's an easy way to get around it: you sue someone individually. For instance, you want to sue a prison? Sue the warden.
The Commonweatlh of Massachusetts limits ordinary public employees to $100,000 and public leaders liability to $1,000,000, paid by the public entity. A lawyer has to work hard at making money given the attorneys hired for public entities can drag out discovery with endless depositions, requests for documents, and interrogatories. The juries are not allowed to be told that damages are limited by statute. In short, the system is set up to attract and protect the incompetent.
Business on the other hand has to run the gauntlet of bureaucrats looking for more fees (taxes), opportunists (lawsuits), and communists (gangsters). It takes balls to be a businessman. It only takes gall to be one of the others.
As things stand right now, the mall has settled with her but we are holding out. Our lawyers are trying to have the case thrown out of court on the basis that the church is protected in this matter by our state's 'good Samaritan' laws. Our hope is that it will be dismissed and that precedence is created that protects this type of activity. If it is not thrown out, our state Senator has promised to introduce a bill that extends the 'good Samaritan' laws to include such things.
As for the woman, we deeply regret that we were unable to protect her. For she and women like her are the very reason we do this. We wish her only good for her and she is in our prayers daily.
That is truly a sorry state of affairs.
I'm glad you are getting some sane advice from your lawyer. To settle would just be wrong. A prayer was sent up for you and your group, I know this must be emotionally trying but you were and are doing the right thing. Hang in there.
Absolutely right. However, it has been my personal experience that the lawyers usually initiate the contact, ethical or not, legal or not, and we all see many commercials encouraging the hiring of lawyers to "get money" no matter what the case is.
I have seen it personally, I have been an insurance investigator, I have been asked to be a "bird dog" for lawyers for a fee, and I know several acquaintences who have been contacted by lawyers, indirectly of course, and encouraged to sue.
One of the WalMarts by me has gotten so bad they have hired rent-a-cops to patrol the parking lot.
It's the corner of Ashley Frustrate and Rivers for those of you in the North Chuck area.
I stick to the Goose Creek WalMart - much safer - better class of people shopping there for the most part.
My sympathy ends when the lawyers come out. F#$k him. I hope he goes bankrupt after losing this suit.
Most likely, he sees this as a moneymaking opportunity. Walmart has deep pockets and lawyers like to sue entities with deep pockets. As morbid as it sounds, he is treating the situation as if he won lotto.
Me too!!
Wasn't this woman related to a Freeper or a Freeper herself?
There were many threads about this from the beginning of her abduction.
That is illegal in South Carolina.
While I appreciate your experience, I have seen it personally too. I have worked as a paralegal for 20-ish years and my husband is a lawyer. There are good, decent, honest people out there who just happened to be lawyers because they really did want to be in a position to help people and change things. There are many lawyers on Free Republic; I have met a few of them.
Yes there are bad lawyers....there are bad doctors, bad musicians and bad fast order cooks. When a lawyer breaks the rules, hopefully they will get busted. I know of many who have. I personally think this case against Walmart is the ultimate in stupidity and greediness on the husband's part. Getting whatever $$ is not going to bring back his wife. She was murdered by evil people in an evil act over which Walmart surely had no control. The lawyer is, I hope, working within the confines of the law, and obviously the law allows him to persue this. Therein lies the problem, the laws that allow this, not the lawyer that that persues an action *allowed by law*.
It is also hilarious to watch the FReepers go into tail spins about lawyers -- and only lawyers -- when they support capitalism in every other fashion. It's ok for Bill Gates and Ted Turner to be rich off the backs of others, it's a free market after all, but not "greedy" lawyers.
All lawyers do not deserve the bashing that takes place on this forum. Be glad you live in a country where lawyers can make a living. Better than a country where you aren't allowed a lawyer. In the meantime, quit yer whinin' and whailin' and start changing the laws you don't like.
Therein lies the problem, the laws that allow this, not the lawyer that that persues an action *allowed by law*.
And therein lies another opening for criticism. Lawyers are generally influential politically so how did it get that way? I know the personal injury lawyers give lots of money to the Democrats and the Democrats controlled Congress for most of the last 50 years, so maybe that is the reason. Bush has introduced a tort reform package, a got one passed as Governor of Texas, so maybe we are on the road back.
It is also hilarious to watch the FReepers go into tail spins about lawyers -- and only lawyers -- when they support capitalism in every other fashion. It's ok for Bill Gates and Ted Turner to be rich off the backs of others, it's a free market after all, but not "greedy" lawyers.
The lawyers get a justified skewering because their actions have an inordinate affect on our lives. What they do in court becomes precedent and basically the law of the land and that causes many other actions in order to avoid becoming their victim. Many freedoms are lost and many costs are increased because of the actions of trial lawyers.
If you think that is unfair then I will spread the blame. It is the fault of any plaintiff who files a frivolous suit, all judges who don't throw them out, the juries who award the penalties, and of course the lawyers themselves. Fair?
Bad plumbers, cops, politicians, professors, preachers, presidents, doctors. lawyers, CEOs, etc., give a bad name to their profession. When I blast bad cops it is not because I think all cops are bad. Even New Orleans had some good cops even if they were hard to find. And yes, I am glad they are all available when I need them. I have encountered the good and the bad in most of those professions and, like everyone else, I try to avoid the bad and stay with the good.
That doesn't shield any of them from criticism. I admire your loyalty to your husband and to his and your profession. The bad apples hurt you more than me but I am not alone in my opinion by far. Hey, lawyers even have their own joke genre now and I didn't cause that.
To illustrate the absurdity of the notion, imagine claiming that the screenwriter was "right" when he has Hannibal Lector say that human liver is best served with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Moreover, Milton was neither right nor wrong when he makes Lucifer a sympathetic character in Paradise Lost.
The best one can do is point-out that good humor has an element of truth to it, but that's about it.
You can overanalyze all you want, but the fact remains that lawyers have always done more than their fair share of taking Civilization down.
"Good" lawyers and judges are a myth. If any actually existed they'd not have allowed the bottom feeders to flourish.
Everything is overanalysis to those being ridiculous. Every good lawyer is a myth until you actually need one.
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