Outrageous! Lawsuit Lunacy

There's big money in blaming others for your own bad luck. Too bad it costs all of us.

By Michael Crowley
From Reader's Digest

But in our upside-down legal system, the word fault can mean strange things. For instance, in May 2003, a trucker was driving on a public road near Cedar Springs, Michigan, when a small Cessna clipped the top of his landscaping vehicle and crashed into a field. Miraculously, no one was hurt, and it all seemed like a freak accident. So imagine how the owner of Dean's Landscaping felt when he found out that the plane owners wanted him to pay $21,000 for damages to the Cessna. The plane owners contended that, under the state's no-fault insurance law, they weren't technically operating a "vehicle," and because the plane was in the air, the incident didn't occur on a road -- which meant they were entitled to compensation. It's a kooky argument, but two judges agreed, and the landscaper's insurance company coughed up the damages.

With greedy lawyers poised to take advantage of every goofy mishap, dreams of big bucks have replaced common sense. To rein in this lawsuit abuse, some members of Congress have proposed putting caps on lawyers' fees and damage awards, and switching class-action suits from state to federal courts. But until that happens, my advice is that you retain a good lawyer -- and try not to drive into any airplanes.

From Reader's Digest - July 2006