Antigua: Dive boat leaves behind two scuba divers

[BTravlin]

Poke fun at lawyers if you must, but they are professionals, and each side's attorney is committed to doing their best work for their clients. They are not supposed to be the judge before the trial; they are indeed suppose to be the white collar hired guns of the respective clients. I'd rather have seen the two divers sue for a substantial amount of stock in the corporation.

Yes, I will poke fun at the lawyers, thank you. At one time, I lived in a neighborhood with five attorneys and all I can say is the parties were quite enlightening. Get five cigar smoking and drinking attorneys, three of which were of the personal injury type, in one room together with just one non-lawyer, being me, and the professionalism disappeared quicker than the scotch. Truly disgusting.

I realize I'm guilty of a broad generalization here because I'm sure there are many fine dedicated personal injury attorneys out there but I've yet to meet any of them.

 

[DandyDon]

Ok, their professional responsibility is to represent their clients - not prejudge. It may well not be a personal preference, but it is the best system in the world. Personal judgment ruling is too close to anarchy. TY

 

[guggie]

Ok, their professional responsibility is to represent their clients - not prejudge. It may well not be a personal preference, but it is the best system in the world. Personal judgment ruling is too close to anarchy. TY

We're venturing off topic, and any discussion trying to justify the bizarre tort laws and those people that profit off of them in this country is not appropriate for this board.

Here are my final comments about this for this thread.

I'd like to see how many personal injury "attorneys" would survive in an environment where the losing plaintiff has to pay the legal costs and damages for the winning defendant. That would sure go a long way to improving things around here. So would limiting obscene cash judgments, many making individuals and their heirs independently wealthy. We are all finding our hobby more difficult to engage in because of liability concerns. Everyone is worried about lawsuits and does what they can to limit their exposure. If they had less exposure and people took more responsibility for their own actions, we'd all be better off.

To have Sandals get sued at this time is merely punitive. They provided restitution to the affected divers. Measure were enacted to prevent the same thing from happening again. Sue the pants off them and the lawyer gets paid an inappropriate fee, the divers get wealthy, and Sandals (as well as other resorts) stop their dive ops because of liability concerns. We all lose in the end except the lawyer...unless he/she is a diver and can't dive where they want to either.

That's my 2 cents. I'm not alone in my feelings. Most of America is fed up with this nonsense. The problem is, tort reform is very difficult to achieve when the US Senate is composed of mostly lawyers, and every attempt at federal legislation attempting to change the tort system is stopped in the senate.

 

[DandyDon]

Good post guggie - you should post more often.

 

[BTravlin]

Yes, I agree as well. Loser pays would help bring some sanity to our society and increased personal responsibility is always a good thing.

 

[Alex777]

If Sandals is sued in a tort action, the case will be tried in Antigua, not the US. Since Antigua is a former British possession, I would guess (and it is only a guess) that:

- the loser of the lawsuit will have to pay the legal costs of the winner;

- the case will have to be tried before a judge without a jury;

- the damages for pain & suffering will be capped at an amount in the low 6 figures;

- the lawyers will be prohibited by their Code of Ethics from taking a percentage of the judgment; they must charge for their TIME, not share in the result.

<< We are all finding our hobby more difficult to engage in because of liability concerns. Everyone is worried about lawsuits and does what they can to limit their exposure. >>

Not "all" of us are finding that, although Americans may be. Not "everyone" is worried about lawsuits, although many in the USA may be. The most important thing to keep in mind about the American tort system is that it is uniquely AMERICAN. No other country I can think of has the same blend of factors - jury trials, contingency fees, lack of costs awards, etc. - which breed all the dissatisfaction I read of in the US.

As for diving tort actions, please remember that American law applies in the USA and American courts have no jurisdiction (under accepted principles of international law) over negligent acts committed abroad.

In most (all?) Caribbean countries, a "tort lawyer" is about as common as a "ski hill operator." In the Cayman Islands, I cannot name one.

 

[guggie]

If Sandals is sued in a tort action, the case will be tried in Antigua, not the US. Since Antigua is a former British possession, >>

Wow. I wasn't aware of the tort differences. Thanks for educating me. This is inspiring. The Brits are clearly more civilized than we (Americans) are. I'm going to go make a cup of tea!

 

[divingyogini]

That's a nice follow up. I like the resorts response and the measures they did to appease the vacationers.

Now, I sure hope no scum sucking bottom dwelling personal injury attorney makes money off of this incident. :no

I doubt it, considering that (at least according to the Sandals PR machine) the group had already booked a return trip to the resort compliments of Sandals. That's not the action of people about to sue.

 

[DandyDon]

No it'd be impossible now. Sorry I helped get this lawyer talk going. Let's get back to the accident.

Anyone got any new ideas...??

 

[Alex777]

<< The Brits are clearly more civilized than we (Americans) are. I'm going to go make a cup of tea! >>

Tea?? Most of us here consider (the American) Starbucks to be the most significant advance in the last 200 years in the beverage field!