Ramons Employee Passes away on a Blue Hole trip

[idocsteve]

well its not as if the person who gave him the octo could actually REFUSE to do so. That WOULD be tantamount to murder or maybe manslaughter or something if Andy would have ended up drowning because someone refused to give him air.

You have a point that could be raised in defense. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't".

It's not like a couple of people were swimming along, one snorkeling and the other diving and the diver said "hey come breathe off my snorkel it's cool!", and the resulting experiment ended with the snorkeler embolizing.

I suppose a strong case could be made that this was done with the intent of saving a life.

Still you never know. Here in the US "well meaning rescuers" get sued ALL the time.

There are supposed to be "Good Samaritan" laws on the books to prevent this from happening but a good attorney with a greedy family with pockets to fill won't hesitate to file a law suit if they think they've got a chance to convince a sympathetic jury.

 

[darkstar]

Really? A guy died making a relatively simple mistake and the discussion is whether someone could get sued?

And some of you have been watching way too much Law and Order. For one thing, there is no prosecutor in a law suit.

 

[dougr52]

Really? A guy died making a relatively simple mistake and the discussion is whether someone could get sued?

And some of you have been watching way too much Law and Order. For one thing, there is no prosecutor in a law suit.

that's telling them, darkstar:shocked2:

 

[idocsteve]

Really? A guy died making a relatively simple mistake and the discussion is whether someone could get sued?'

Yes, that's really happening here.

For one thing, there is no prosecutor in a law suit.

I meant to say "District Attorney".

My bad.

But at least I didn't say "For one thing" and then only post one thing.

 

[peterbj7]

there is no prosecutor in a law suit.

I respectfully disagree. There may be no "Prosecutor" named as such, but the District Attorney performs the role of prosecutor.

 

[Downing]

Well, technically if it's a lawsuit then the prosecutor is known as the plaintiff as that would be a civil case.

District Attorneys prosecute criminal cases.

Civil cases are where a private party is suing someone else, usually for money, and often called "lawsuits."

Criminal cases are where the defendant could go to jail.

I think the source of confusion is although in civil cases it's "plaintiff" and in criminal cases it's "prosecutor," in both types of cases the person defending himself is the "defendant." This was actually addressed very early on in my first year in law school as many of the students were confused about this also.

As with all things legal, there are a few exceptions, such as a civil defendant could be held in contempt and land in the pokey or when the government prosecutes a civil case like a civil rights violation.

And one could make an argument that all "law suits" are lawyers.

In any case, it was a tragic situation and I feel terrible for all involved.