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To: William Tell
If you negligently crash into someones car and injure them, the liability law needs to specify that you are only liable for the damage which would likely have occurred if the person had a seatbelt fastened. Any additional damage would be the burden of the person who decided to be unbelted

Nice idea, but the problem with that is too often it would result in so much extra expense for lawyering and expert testimony and court time to prove what did what damage--or even how much more damage might have been done if person were belted--that it would probably be cheaper just to pay.

26 posted on 07/18/2004 12:43:46 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: Age of Reason
Age of Reason said: Nice idea, but the problem with that is too often it would result in so much extra expense for lawyering and expert testimony and court time to prove what did what damage--or even how much more damage might have been done if person were belted--that it would probably be cheaper just to pay.

You may be right, but the responsibility for that rests with the legislatures and the courts. The purpose of contract law is to clarify responsibilities and reduce litigation. It was never intended to obtain "fairness", however that might be defined.

The statute of frauds concerning real estate dictates that all real estate transactions must be in writing. This may not be fair to those who rely on verbal agreements, but it serves the purpose of keeping these cases out of court without written contracts to enforce. Unfortunately, laws have been passed and judgements rendered in an attempt to be "fair" to people without such written contracts and thus the benefit of reducing litigation has been significantly reduced.

There are many ways that the legislatures could reform the tort system so that it is more "fair" to those who are not parties to litigation but it would require pre-judgements to eliminate the courts latitude. The lawyers will not allow this.

33 posted on 07/18/2004 12:59:02 PM PDT by William Tell
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