Sue Baby Sue

If you watch TV you most likely have seen the ads for a number of law firms.  They boast a super high success rate and have gotten their clients millions of dollars.  Isn't that great!  Well, NO!  Who do you think is paying for those hundreds of millions of dollars - YOU!

Let's take a look at their success rate.  I would guess ninety percent are settled before it goes to court.  I would guess they convince their clients to accept a deal that is much less than their client would get if it went to trial.  I would guess they pray on poor people who are really damaged, but need money now.  I would guess they accept frivolous lawsuits that they believe they can settle in a very short time.

To keep me from being sued, these are my opinions and have zero facts behind them.  You should make up your own mind.

We are a litigious country.  Many of the lawsuits are necessary and protect us from harm or pay us for the damage done.  However, there are too many (in my opinion) lawsuits that are done out of anger, greed and revenge.

How many divorces could be settled by two adults that respect each other enough to sit down and work out a fair deal for both - A LOT.  The stress of fighting to make sure you get more than he or she is just not worth it.  The anger to get back at someone because they hurt you is just not worth it.  What about the other people that suffer (like the kids)?  Do either of you care enough about them to settle without a prolong legal fight?  Do you really feel better and happier because you took him or her for everything they had?  If you do, you're not reading my blogs.

I left my first wife with three thousand dollars and a beat-up old car.  I wanted my freedom more than I wanted a fight.  I cared more for the kids then I cared for the money.  I believed I would recover and make the money back.  I left my second wife because of emotional stress.  She sued me for everything and I gave it to her.  My choice was to spend all my money having lawyers fight the divorce to the death (as she was willing to do) or give her the house, cars and money so I could go on with my life.  Just the stress relief was worth the price.  Again, I recovered.

I know people who will give lawyers thousands of dollars to fight over six inches of property.  Slip and fall is one of the most common lawsuit.  You go into a seven eleven, don't notice (or do notice if you're a crook) a wet spot and slip.  You sue for doctor bills plus pain and suffering.  I get the doctor bills.  I don't get the pain and suffering.  You're not going to be handicap the rest of your life.  You not going to be mentally ill the rest of your life.  It hurt - so what.  You'll get over it and life will go on.  

What if you fell in your kitchen?  Would you sue the linoleum for pain and suffering?  No, you would accept the pain for now knowing it will be gone soon.  But, why not sue Seven Eleven - their rich.  Because these kind of lawsuits forces them to pay a lot for insurance and hire a legal staff.  Nothing is for free - their product prices will go up because someone other than you fell on their floor.

I'm not down on lawyers (my son is a lawyer - contract law) or the people who deserve to sue.  I am down on people using the legal system to make money, get revenge, make a point or, believe it or not, because they can.

We have the highest insurance rates of any country.  We have the highest health costs of any country and our health care is not the best in the world.  We have a stressful society because we sue too much.  We take more drugs for stress than any other country.

I, for one, believe we are all in this together.  Suing a company, a doctor, a candlestick maker, etc. has a negative effect on their workers, all the people that need their products and services and you.  

People are suffering because of high prices.  People are suffering because the cost of insurance is ridiculously high.  People are suffering because they know it's so easy to get sued.  We, as a community, can stop this from happening.  New laws won't work because they will hurt people who truly need the law to protect or reimburse them.  New laws won't work because politics are involved.  New laws won't work because too many people are getting rich with the laws just the way they are.

Therefore, it's up to us.  We could go back to the way it was in this country when I was a boy.  Back then, a car hits another car.  The two drivers get out and scream at each other.  After the screaming, they look at the damage and one pays the other.  No lawsuit, no pain and suffering.  They just go off and fix their bumpers.

Neighbors were neighborly back then.  If they had a difference they settled it by talking to each other.  No lawyers - no lawsuits - no being mad at each other - no stress.  back then, if your doctor did something wrong you stopped seeing him and told all your friends to stop seeing him.  In my neighborhood we actually made a dentist leave the neighborhood because nobody would go to him.

I appreciate my life today more than I did back then except for the negative energy affects today's lawsuits have on all of us.