Arrsonists Sue Insurance Company
Two Michigan men set a small fire in their store to collect insurance money on the goods. The fire spread to the next building, which they also owned. After confessing to the crime, the men sued for a claim on the building they accidentally torched.
Weatherman Sued for Inaccuracy
Frivolous lawsuits aren’t just an American epidemic. A woman in Israel sued a local weatherman and TV station after his predicted sunny forecast turned to unexpected rain, which she claims gave her the flu because she was ill-prepared for it.
Robber Sues Bank!
A bank robber knocked off a California Savings and Loan. He shoved the stolen money roll, which contained a hidden Security Pac, in his front pocket. The device leaked red dye and tear gas giving the robber 2nd and 3rd degree burns, for which he sued the bank and the device manufacturer.
Dude, Stole My Wave!
One surfer sued another for stealing his wave. The court was able to establish guilt but dismissed the case because it could not agree on a monetary award for the pain and suffering endured having to watch another ride your wave.
‘Clap On’ a Lawsuit
A New York woman sued the company that makes ‘The Clapper,’ saying she had to clap so hard to turn her appliances on and off that she hurt her hands and was unable to peel potatoes.
Read more and see some of the verdicts here.
You should add Sam Sloan suing the USCF over and over again, costing the federation tons of money.
The litigation-happy society is a major problem. If I wanted to write down everything what comes to my mind, it would fill a book. So, only a few superficial words:
When the legal system was formed (at least in USA), nobody thought of such a broad range abuse, thus no safety measures were implemented. That’s why reason-less litigation became a huge business. Perhaps the best example is from my own profession, I am an ob-gyn doctor. I opened a private solo practice in 1982. It was during the 80’s when litigations, insurance ran amok. I had no lawsuits against me, yet in year 1987, I was informed that my next year insurance will be 112 thousand dollars, for ONE YEAR. I did some quick calculations and concluded something quite obvious: there is no way a solo practitioner can generate an EXTRA 112 thousand dollars in any honest way. What would I have to do to generate such extra money? Do a lot of unnecessary surgery. Yes, that would make it quite possible. But I didn’t have the stomach to do that, thus I cancelled my insurance and I was confident that I am good enough to do just fine.
Not so. Shortly after that, probably because many other doctors chose a similar path, one state after the other made laws making such insurance compulsory and making state license dependent on paying such insurance. I still refused to pay, thus I was forced to close my private practice, which after a decade went on without ANY problems from medical standpoint. I switched over to be “employed” in small town hospitals, because some hospitals have their own internal insurance system, costing much less.
The point I am trying to make? Well, it isn’t pretty. I am convinced that even today doctors are coerced to act unethically and do a bunch of needless tests, procedures, operations, just to come up with the insurance money. Thus the whole scenario became like a mafia style operation, where the legal and insurance systems “will protect you” against themselves. They already closed the possible loopholes against good and confident doctors who would be willing to get out of all this. Now they can’t, otherwise they can’t even practice.
Statistics indicate that in USA there are nearly a million lawyers. That makes a 1:300 lawyer:population ratio. Every 300 person have a lawyer. In a sane system there is no way that 300 people would be able to “feed” a lawyer.In USA not only they are “being fed”, but they live quite well. In Japan the same ratio is 1:9000
I assume that other areas of activities (besides medicine) created similar scenarios.