Why Do We Need Insurance?

[Trace Malinowski]

What % of these frivolous lawsuits result in megamillion payputs? According to defendant’s insurance companies, all of them. OTOH plaintiff’s attorneys will tell you hardly any. Only a mstter of time before someone mentions McDs and hot coffee.

No one mentions how much safer products are today. Europeans love to bitch about how litigious the US is, all the while enjoying those same benefits.

From what read about the McDonald's coffee case, the temperature of their coffee was considered dangerously hot. The Real Story Behind McDonald’s Infamous Hot Coffee Case

 

[tridacna]

Here we are much less litigious for the simple fact that any civil cause takes 10 to 20 years to conclude, and at the end the legal expenses on both sides are much larger than the reimbursement obtained.
So it invariantly becomes a loose-loose case... No one wins...

That's not my point. You in Europe benefit from safer product design because companies in the US are forced to make their products safer because of the threat of potential litigation. Car manufacturers did not introduce airbags out of a sense of duty or benevolence. Ditto for drug companies. This is not altruistic behavior on their part. It's the threat of those "oh so nasty" lawsuits that persuaded them to do so. The US market is so big that the rest of the world benefits from those changes. Then mocks us for our litigious society.

 

[Superlyte27]

What % of these frivolous lawsuits result in megamillion payputs? According to defendant’s insurance companies, all of them. OTOH plaintiff’s attorneys will tell you hardly any. Only a mstter of time before someone mentions McDs and hot coffee.

No one mentions how much safer products are today. Europeans love to bitch about how litigious the US is, all the while enjoying those same benefits.

Google what the McD’s coffee payout actually was when it was all said and done: I don’t think they even paid $100k

 

[Superlyte27]

What % of these frivolous lawsuits result in megamillion payputs? According to defendant’s insurance companies, all of them. OTOH plaintiff’s attorneys will tell you hardly any. Only a mstter of time before someone mentions McDs and hot coffee.

No one mentions how much safer products are today. Europeans love to bitch about how litigious the US is, all the while enjoying those same benefits.

Mega millions? Virtually never. An insurance company is only liable for policy limits.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Where my mind was when I asked the question was simply this. Skydiving instructors are licensed by the FAA and most, if not all, belong to the United States Parachute Association. Drop zones seem to cover their professionals because they don't seem to have to purchase individual professional liability insurance. Not sure what sort of policy drop zones have but apparently individual professional liability for skydiving pros does not exist.

With our two sports being very similar, how did skydiving instructors not have individual responsibility for insuring themselves like scuba instructors, and as I learned, climbing instructors? If Pete was willing to take off from a grass strip in a farm field and fly a dude name Daryl from Daryl's One Man Show Skydiving School, how does Daryl get a policy as a drop zone, not as an individual? Then if he hires two guys named Larry and another Daryl. How come Larry, Daryl, and Daryl don't pay individual policies? It doesn't exist so apparently, even an individual instructor needs to be a DZ.

 

[FF / EMT]

Since we’re discussing skydiving, I’ve got a buddy selling a parachute, it’s never been opened and has a small stain…

 

[Subcooled]

Not having a liability insurance (that also covers legal fees) might be OK as long as no-one challenges the validity of the waiver. Some rights granted by law may be irrevocable, too. This may depend on the jurisdiction.

You should really consult a lawyer, not us.

 

[tridacna]

Google what the McD’s coffee payout actually was when it was all said and done: I don’t think they even paid $100k

I know that story all too well. McDonalds settled for about $500k. Original was for $200k in compensatory and med, (less 20% for her liability); $2.7M in punitive - reduced by the judge to $480K.

She only wanted about $20k at the outset.

 

[boulderjohn]

Edited out once I did 2 minutes of research I should have done earlier.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Not having a liability insurance (that also covers legal fees) might be OK as long as no-one challenges the validity of the waiver. Some rights granted by law may be irrevocable, too. This may depend on the jurisdiction.

You should really consult a lawyer, not us.

Yeah. What was I thinking?