Friday, February 25, 2005
Be careful of what you say (or: Sue-happy Bastards!)
I always used to say that I'd never sue anyone under any circumstances. I held true to this for years and indirectly was able to exercise this belief during the wrongful death case of my father-in-law. Well, that's not always how it works. Case in point:
Do you have car insurance? Well, you've just authorized your insurance company to sue people on your behalf. I know because I'm currently suing someone. Well, I'm not doing the suing, my insurance company paid me for the accident I had in July and then asked the guilty party (either the car rental company or the nice Korean tourists) for the money to cover my claim.
It turns out that they "have been unable to collect from the responsible party for damages paid", so they're going to sue.
How does that make me feel? I feel bad because there's no easy way out of this for either of us. The accident was not my fault, and I don't feel that I should have had to put up the cost of a replacement truck. But I don't want to take money away from people who very likely can't afford it just because they weren't paying attention (if it was the Koreans that this legal document is describing). I'd be willing to take installment payments or work something else out if I knew it wasn't the rental car company that the liars were going after.
I'm hoping that it's the rental company that the liars are going after for allowing non-licensed, uninsured, foreign nationals to rent a car in the first place. Apparently, they may have rented a car to them without forcing them to purchase insurance.
In a nutshell, this is how the world works. In a best case scenario, I have insurance, they have insurance and the liars get rich whenever we meet by accident.
Do you have car insurance? Well, you've just authorized your insurance company to sue people on your behalf. I know because I'm currently suing someone. Well, I'm not doing the suing, my insurance company paid me for the accident I had in July and then asked the guilty party (either the car rental company or the nice Korean tourists) for the money to cover my claim.
It turns out that they "have been unable to collect from the responsible party for damages paid", so they're going to sue.
How does that make me feel? I feel bad because there's no easy way out of this for either of us. The accident was not my fault, and I don't feel that I should have had to put up the cost of a replacement truck. But I don't want to take money away from people who very likely can't afford it just because they weren't paying attention (if it was the Koreans that this legal document is describing). I'd be willing to take installment payments or work something else out if I knew it wasn't the rental car company that the liars were going after.
I'm hoping that it's the rental company that the liars are going after for allowing non-licensed, uninsured, foreign nationals to rent a car in the first place. Apparently, they may have rented a car to them without forcing them to purchase insurance.
In a nutshell, this is how the world works. In a best case scenario, I have insurance, they have insurance and the liars get rich whenever we meet by accident.
