 |
It seems you can’t turn around without hearing about some kind of lawsuit or another for some reason. It wasn’t that long ago when people assumed responsibility for their own actions. Now it’s common to hear stories of people winning multi-million dollar settlements for smoking or spilling hot coffee on their laps because they can’t get out of the car and drink their morning coffee at a table.
While big business is always subject to lawsuits and often end up on the losing side even when logic tells the public that the person suing should have known better, or brought the loss on themselves. Deep pockets are often subject to attack for every little possible crime they may have committed. We can’t purchase a hair dryer that doesn’t warn us Not to use it in the shower. Our children can’t ride a bike without putting on a coat-of armor, I am lucky I survived my childhood! Schools across the nation are outlawing Tag and my children were NOT permitted to Run at one school they attended. Excuse me running at school is now dangerous?
I wonder how long it will be before parents start suing because our children grow up to be overweight because they were not permitted to run at school? Oh yeah, there has already been litigation for overweight people who thought French-fries were healthy because they were served by fast food restaurants. It had to be the restaurants fault after all–right! Those menus didn’t have a warning that eating 7,000 calories a day would make a person fat! There isn’t a disclaimer on the menu that warns eating deep fried starch and washing it down with a milk shake might cause someone to gain weight and there should be laws that inform people of this fact. After all we seem to need to be told not to dry our hair in the shower.
Life is risky! And when something bad happens someone should be held accountable! My son severed his leg and needed to have it re-attached because he went down a hill on a sled! So maybe the sled company should pay all the bills, and give my son millions because there wasn’t a warning on the sled that said, “don’t use it on a hill with an 18% downgrade, just after the sun sets and the slush freezes to ice!”
After his accident three different attorneys contacted us, asking if we had filed against the city for placing a mailbox post on the curb, or the homeowner where our son landed or least part of him did. Or the parents who gave our son the sled to play on without our permission. We were surprise we didn’t have offers to represent us in a suit against the local news for not reporting the slush was going to re-freeze and people should bring in their children for fear they might play and get hurt!
Maybe we should sue the doctor who decided to re-attach his leg, after all the new prosthetics may have made our son a marathon winner. Now he can’t even run and it is all that doctors fault. He took away our son’s opportunity to earn the big buck and become an amazing marathon runner with one of the new high-tech legs that have been created. That doctor denied our son income! A future as a star and made a choice to re-attach the numb, and mangled leg instead–what was he thinking?
Maybe we should sue the doctors who delivered him, because they didn’t warn us that our child might one day get hurt. Maybe we should sue each other for the fact that our son was even born in the first place and we never wanted to suffer the stress of a seriously injured child. After all if my husband hadn’t wanted to that night, our son would not even be here today. Maybe it was my fault because I ovulated?
Either way someone should be held accountable for the fact my son has a half million dollar leg that doesn’t work and never will. Maybe I should sue my son for emotional stress and all the time I spent taking care of him after he broke what I gave him!
The fact of the matter is, all of these law suits have accomplished many things.
Higher Insurance Rates- More expensive products and services.
- Lack of opportunities and life experience for children and adults.
- Higher odds of being held liable for someones choice, decision or actions.
- And, a society that is raising children who don’t know what taking a risk really means because they are not even allowed to run at school.
There are always cases where lawsuits are valid and people have suffered because of no fault of their own. These are legitimate cases and deserve to be won by the person who is damaged and hurt from no choice of their own. The problem is that these people often don’t have lawyers willing to represent them because they don’t want multi-millions.
It has become such a liable world that even parents driving Girl Scouts to camp need background checks and liability insurance before they can even attend a weekly meeting and teach third graders how to sew on merit badges, wait a needle… it might poke a kid and get infected and then I might be sued for not warning the parents, or finding a way to insure that no one accidentally pokes themselves with a needle, and God forbid they share needles when we aren’t watching and spread some horrible disease!
 |
So forget making grandma’s cookies for the kindergarten Halloween party. The children might get sick or be allergic to the special ingredients. I guess our children can’t be proud of the wonderful cookies their mommies make instead everyone can eat those that came from the same old store bakery! After all we don’t want little children to poke their fingers or eat something super-special Joey’s mom makes. It could be the most horrible thing that ever happened to them and someone needs to protect them!
Thank goodness I have a two-million dollar umbrella policy I would be afraid to do anything if I didn’t have insurance to cover my ASSets.
The next Blog will discuss Personal Liability Umbrellas and Why You might want to consider buying one.
Related Blogs:
- Backyard Trampolines May Lead To Cancelled Homeowner Insurance
- Are You Ready to Celebrate the Fourth of July?
- No Car? Do You Still Need Auto Insurance?
Photo credits for this blog entry: 
(no use restrictions for these photos)
Glossary of Insurance Terms:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J-K | L | M | N | O | P | Q-R | S | T | U-V | W-Z
Families.com Blogs are for informational purposes only. Families.com assumes no responsibility for consumer choices. Consumers are reminded that it is their responsibility to research their choices properly and speak to a certified insurance professional prior to making any decision as important as an insurance purchase.