DEMA Seminar - How to Avoid Litigation from Scuba Intros and General Instruction

[Scott L]

That advertisement does convey exactly what you state. We win, we get YOU the $ (or we protect you from paying the $) AND we make enough on the deal that we have great cars. (BTW, Rick's Bentley is a working car not a pleasure mobile)

I get the concept. Most seccessful attorneys use their superbly decorated office/library/conference rooms to do the talking. Check out David Bois's web-site. All in good fun!

Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP

 

[Peter Guy]

I don't personally believe that getting rich off others misfortunes is anything to applaud.

What nonsense! I'm sorry but you clearly just don't get it. Do you really believe surgeons should cut for free? After all, it is only because the patient has a problem, a misfortune, that the surgeon will cut at all.

Or how about tree toppers? (Not that they get rich mind you, but at least they get paid quite well.) They go out and cut trees that are endangering something else -- that is, someone has a misfortune and they clean it up.

Or how about your 24-hour plumber! I don't know about you, but when I have a plumbing "misfortune" I want the plumber here NOW and I really don't care how much I pay as long as they fix it.

Or is it that you just don't like those blood sucking attorneys -- except when they are working for you!

 

[The Chairman]

Most seccessful attorneys use their superby decorated

They also use a "speel chequer"!

 

[Scott L]

They also use a "speel chequer"!

Yeah, I got a new notebook computer last week and have not dialed it in including enabling spell check. Regardless, I offer this retort.

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way". Mark Twain

 

[Scuba Cowboy]

I do get it. Doing a job that needs to be done is one thing, such as repairing a toilet or trimming a tree. I don't know any rich plumbers or tree trimmers. But scuba litigation? My point was it is unfortunate it is being done at all, as in unfortunate there are lawsuits involved in the scuba industry. And then when a blood sucking (your words) lawyer makes enough to drive Bentley's, very unfortunate IMO! But you are a lawyer so I wouldn't expect you to share my opinion.

 

[Scott L]

I do get it. Doing a job that needs to be done is one thing, such as repairing a toilet or trimming a tree. I don't know any rich plumbers or tree trimmers. But scuba litigation? My point was it is unfortunate it is being done at all, as in unfortunate there are lawsuits involved in the scuba industry. And then when a blood sucking (your words) lawyer makes enough to drive Bentley's, very unfortunate IMO! But you are a lawyer so I wouldn't expect you to share my opinion.

To add to Peter Guy's thoughts name me a person who is at the very top of his field that does not command seven or eight figures in compensation? He is able to choose most cases where in general the facts of the case are so blatantly damning to the defendant that verdicts for the plantiff are often quite lofty as well as the attorney's contingency fees. From time to time plantiff attorneys receive a goose egg in jury cases zapping $100K or more of firm assets in blink of an eye....That said, if you were to forward me a petition to sign in support of a limitation in non economic awards in tort cases I will be the first to sign. My profile will offer you my reasons. Florida's action four years ago with Med Mal cases have resulted in medical doctor's malpractice rates plummeting.

 

[JS1scuba]

I do get it. Doing a job that needs to be done is one thing, such as repairing a toilet or trimming a tree. I don't know any rich plumbers or tree trimmers. But scuba litigation? My point was it is unfortunate it is being done at all, as in unfortunate there are lawsuits involved in the scuba industry. And then when a blood sucking (your words) lawyer makes enough to drive Bentley's, very unfortunate IMO! But you are a lawyer so I wouldn't expect you to share my opinion.

Dale, it's not scuba litigation. It's litigation on a scuba case. Until such time as we have tort reform and awards are curtailed we will continue to see sucessful attorneys.

Someday, and i do hope that day never comes for you. Some diver who you trained 5 years ago may get hurt. He's going to be at some family gathering talking about his events and how he can no longer do what he loves, how he can't perform husbandly duties, and it hurts when he takes a leak. With the mayonaise dripping from his mouth his cousin will blurt out: "sue that damn instructor you had, he should have taught you better" ..... and that will start the process.

They will go down to the Personal Injury Attorneys office that they saw on TV and see if they "have a case". Once the PIA has a little chat and realizes that there are at least 25 different companies they can shotgun after they will check the statute of limitations and prepare the case. Along the way you have gone on with your life NEVER knowing that this guy got hurt in the first place and one morning KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK you are served with a law suit, as are 24 others. Mind you that since you AND your wife owned your dive center, she gets served as well. Now the fun begins.

You will first say "oh ****" then you will say "where's that file" then you will scramble to check over the file and make sure everything was done correctly, then you will pick up the phone and call your insurance company.... if its with Willis ..... you get Lesser, if it's with someone else you may get Lesser or you may get someone lesser than Lesser.

Before you fart that morning your "answering" bill will be $5-10k

As much as I can't stand the fact that I have paid lawyers lots of money over the years sometimes you need someone else to do your plumbing.

I never care much what someone else earns so long as they are earning it. As Julia Robert's said portraying Erin Brockavich .... "that joker is gonna get almost half of my money?" and then she asked how much he gets if he loses .... "Then I get nothing," says Masrey (Finney).

Scuba diving is one of the most dangerous activities one can do.

Cheers
JDS

 

[Thalassamania]

Come on Joel, I do not know of a case (which does not mean that they don't exist) in which someone was sued for bad training five years ago. The typical case (at least from what little I've seen) stems from someone dying from a non-medical condition, while (at least by standards) under the supervision of a "Pro" of one sort or another, usually with the "Pro" having done some egregious such as: O/W student, 1st dive, dry suit, instructor not even in the water; inexperienced diver taken by instructor dive guide as part of a group of about seven divers to 170 feet, same ocean buddy system, guide runs out of air and abandons diver; those are rather more typical.

 

[JS1scuba]

Come on Joel, I do not know of a case (which does not mean that they don't exist) in which someone was sued for bad training five years ago. The typical case (at least from what little I've seen) stems from someone dying from a non-medical condition, while (at least by standards) under the supervision of a "Pro" of one sort or another, usually with the "Pro" having done some egregious such as: O/W student, 1st dive, dry suit, instructor not even in the water; inexperienced diver taken by instructor dive guide as part of a group of about seven divers to 170 feet, same ocean buddy system, guide runs out of air and abandons diver; those are rather more typical.

I could have had the cousin say ..... "ya know Herman, you should sue that dive boat (or, regulator, computer, dry suit, company etc) in the end they all get pulled in while searching for the "deep pocket"

Cheers
JDS

 

[Thalassamania]

Joel, all I was taking exception to was, "Some diver who you trained 5 years ago may get hurt." In my limited experience, that's not the way it happens.