Lawsuit happy USA

[nvalleyvee]

I was bitten by our neighbors dog 2 days ago. It took 9 stitches to close the bite. Now I have to tell you the dog was just being a dog and I invaded his space. I cannot tell you how many people have told me it was my free ride out of debt. If the dog had been running free and attacked me that would be a totally different story. I am not going to sue this young couple with 2 kids under 3. They did learn though that maybe the dog should have restricted access to their kids and other people. What is the allure about free money that makes people sue over everything?

[Peg]

Glad to see you are like me nv. I could have sued a doctor years ago and made our lives much easier but I didn't. Too many people want the easy way out. They know they can make money the easy way and not have to work for it. In the end, the only one that really benefits is the lawyer.

[venus]

sorry to hear it nvalleyvee..

I had a friend who's son was in a similar situation, he went into a back yard of someone who lived on their street, supposedly looking for their cat. The dog in the yard bit him and gave him a few scratches,which must have hurt. My friend after getting back from the emergency room called me, ranting about getting the dog put to sleep.

I think l stunned her when l defended the dog, l am a dog owner and paryt of the reason of having a dog is for security, and as you pointed out nv, you as he did invaded it's terrotory. My friend wanted to know why it bit a child, ha is a large 12 year pold, and l rightly pointed out to her the dog will have just been thinking, this is my space and you don't belong..

Glad you didn't go down the legal route.. Way to many people use it as an easy option, even l feel if they were really in the wrong.

Hope you heal well:yh_hugs

[nvalleyvee]

Peg wrote: Glad to see you are like me nv. I could have sued a doctor years ago and made our lives much easier but I didn't. Too many people want the easy way out. They know they can make money the easy way and not have to work for it. In the end, the only one that really benefits is the lawyer.


I have a good friend who is a lawyer and he wanted the case - I called him an ambulance chaser :wah: :wah:

[Betty Boop]

It's the same over here, everyone threatening to sue everyone else.

My ex neighbours wanted to sue me over a dogfight about six years ago. We both owned dogs who would not tolerate one another on or around their own territories, the neighbours would not or could not accept this. She kept talking about taking them out to the fields and making them be 'freinds', we kept saying thats all well and good out there but as soon as you bring them back to their properties they are going defend their territories again.

One day my neighbour bought some post round that the postman had incorrectly delivered, if I'd known she had her dog with her I would never have opened the door, there was an almighty dog fight, I grabbed a bucket of water just as my neighbour put herself between the two dogs and got bitten. She immediately started shouting that my dog had bit her, I asked her how could she be so sure it wasn't her own dog?? She went in and called the police, then changed her story to no dogfight, just my dog attacking her for no reason at all :-5



We need a neighbours from hell thread, I could fill it!!

[chonsigirl]

Good for you NV! If there is no permanent damage, but the sitch scars, don't sue them.

The worst dogbite I ever got, I deserved it. In high school my boyfriend had a ranch, and they told me when I drove up to honk the car horn first. They had dogs that protected the place, and someone would come out and get us. Well, being a know-it-all back then (not like now) I went over with my friends in the car to visit my boyfriend. The dog pack came around the car, and I honked the horn. No one came out.

"Ah come'on, they must be home. Who will get out to knock on the door?"

Well of course I did-it was my boyfriend after all.

I opened the door and started walking to the front door. The girls in the car quickly shut the doors. I made it only halfway up the walk when the dogs came after me in attack mode. Oh boy! I ran for the car, and those girls wouldn't open the door! They only rolled down the window, so I had to jump through it, but the dogs got the last piece of me first. Couldn't sit down for a week. My boyfriend's father was so mad when the doctor had to make the report of a dog bite, after they had warned me. My mother didn't give me much sympathy either. Neither did my sore rear end.

[Jives]

You still have to live with yourself.

I have this funny thing....it's called a conscience. It bugs me sometimes, usually right before or after I do something wrong. Apparently, some other people are lacking this particular personality trait and I find this appalling.

I don't think I was born with it, as I seem to remember doing some rather heinous things as a boy, chopping Mom's counter tops with a butcher knife to see the pretty pattern and relieve my boredom, electrocuting grasshoppers, and other such childish games.

I also seem to remember that I gradually aquired a conscience by suffering consequences for my actions, imposed by two older people I lived with, who called themselves, "My Parents."

My conscience can cost me sometimes...sometimes real money. Here's an example.

I was walking one day in my apartment complex in Phoenix. I was on my way to the pool, which was just a few yards from my door. I didn't wear shoes that day, since the pool was so close and the sidewalks led literally right to it.

I wasn't paying too much attention to where I was stepping, so I didn't see the rusted piece of metal, part of an expansion joint between two slabs of concrete, that was sticking up like a razor blade in my path.

As I swung my foot across it, it slashed the bottom of my foot open from toes to heel, all the way down to the bone. I gasped in surprise and amazement, and staggered, limped, hopped back to my apartment. If you've never felt the bones of your foot touching concrete, be happy, it isn't pleasant.

I sat in the bathtub, trying to tape the huge wound shut. I was having trouble, since I had lost so much blood that I was a little "tipsy". I called a friend of mine to come over and help me. When he arrived, he turned pale as a ghost at the sight of the bathroom. it probably looked like a psychopath had been slaughtering pigs in it. Blood was everywhere, on the walls, the floor, and the tub had very little white left.

I told him, "Dude, I cut myself, I need you to stich it up, 'cause I can't see what I'm doing!" he took on look, gasled, and said, "You gotta be kidding! I can see the bone. Dude! You gotta go to the hospital for this one!" I replied, "I can't, I don't have any money right now, and my car is busted." (He didn't have a car either.) Then he had an idea, "Hey! I'll go get the landlord, they are probably insured for this kind of thing!" I tried to stop him, thinking it was futile, in my experience, landlords never helped people, only took their money and got mad at them when they painted thier skateoards in the apartment.

The landlord returned, too one look at the wound, (and by this time I was feeling pretty "happy") and told my friend, "Don't worry, we have insurance, i'll drive him to the hospital.)

I thought the hospital would be a good thing, but I forgot something. Therre are as many nerves in yor foot as in your hands, more maybe. The doctors tried everything they could think of to deaden the foot, Lydocaine, Zylocaine, Mytocaine, they even tried spraying Novocaine right into the wound itself. But every time they would ask, "Can you feel that?" My agonized answer was "Yeeessssssssss!" Finally they just gave up torturing me and set to stitching it up.

The wound healed beautifully! Since the slash was razor sharp, the edges were clean and there was barely a scar there within a month.

Then one day.... a man came up to me at the gas station I was managing at the time. I'll never forget the day. I was standing inthe cool morning sunlight, washing down the tarmac, when he walked up, rumpled blue business suit and all. He said, "Do you know where I might find Jon St. Ives?"

To have a little fun with him, as I was wont to do when I was younger, I replied in my best English, " I am the person to whom you refer." His face took on a surprised look, followed quickly by a dejected expression. I instantly understood the situation. He was a legal man. He had been hoping I was an unintelligent, easily duped, blue collar worker.

He recovered quickly, but the cat was already out of the bag. "Mr. Ives, I'm from the insurance company that insures your apartment complex, I've come to discuss the compensation for your accident. Do you have time right now?"

I despise beating around the Bush, especially with people I percieve to have only their own interests at heart and not mine. So I replied, "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? How much money are you offering?" He replied, "What do you think your pain and suffering was worth?" (They must teach these guys never to give an offer first, sheesh! )

I studied his face. He was sweating profusely, getting more and more worried by the second. Apparently, he had figured out by now that he was dealing with a keen intellect, despite the dirty gas station rags that camoflaged it. I said, "The pain was incredilble, and it's possible that I will walk with a limp for the rest of my life." That was a complete lie, the foot felt as good as new already. but to tease him a little, since I saw his brow furrow with even more worry, I said, "I don't think I will require anything as exorbitant as a million dollars, $100,000 dollars, will most likely cover everything."

I had been joking, of course, but I saw something then that shocked and amazed me.....He was actually relieved! I knew in an instant that I could have actually asked for and recieved a million dollars, perhaps even more.

Then it happened...my damn conscience. it started speaking to me. Screaming actually. My foot was fine, to take that kind of money would be a crime, it said. You'll never be able to look yourself in the mirror, it said, Theif! It cried, until I wanted to hold my hands to my ears.

With a bit of wistfulness, I looked the man squarely in the eye. He was already saying something about, "That would be fine with his organization, and would I please just sign this statement, guaranteeing me the money, but forbidding me from trying to get any more later?"

Then I heard my own voice speak, it seemed without my volition, "Mister, I'm not being serious. My foot's fine, it's healed completely, and in my family, we don't take money that we don't earn and don't deserve. My medical bills amount to $2000 dollars, and I'd like an extra $1000 for my pain so I can fix my car and still have enough to through a party for my friends. That's it."

I don't think I've ever seen another human being as incredulous as the Insurance Man. Then or now. His jaw hung open and slack with amazment. he stammered, "Ya, ya, you mena that you don't want $100,000 dollars? You only want $3000?"

"Yes, that's what I want. Just enough to take care of the bills. No more than is fair." He hurriedly filled out the forms, as if he was afraid I might suddenly change my mind, or someone might come along and talk some sense into me. I signed them then and there. He handed me a check for the exact amount I had requested and then turned to leave.

Before he left, though, as he walked away, I saw one more thing..he turned towards me, with a thoughful look, and took one last glance at me in my dirty gas station rags, as I stood there in the morning light, hands on hips. A slow smile spread across his face and something else, a look of respect. As if he had never imagined he would find someone like me, but had after all.

He gave me a slow, respecful little bow and then walked slowly away.

I've thought a lot about that day since then....How would my life have changed had I taken the money? What if I had asked for the whole milion? I sure would have gotten it, but how would I have felt. I feel now, more and more sure as I grow older, that I dodged a bullet that day. That, by being true to myself, I somehow passed a test.

I thing's for sure. When I shave in the morning, I can look myself right in the eye...and smile.

So what do you think about people who file frivolous lawsuits, for example the woman who tried to defraud Wendy's, the burglar who sued the homeowner or the man who sued Winnebago because cruise control didn't keep him on the highway?

We've lost a lot of things to this kind of mentallity. Long-chained swings on the playground, merry-go-rounds, diving boards in hotel pools, jungle gyms.....and much more. There was a time when people realized that life was inherently risky, and personal respnsibility was the rule of the day. Can we get that back again? Or is it gone forever?

[nvalleyvee]

You have my respect and I'm happy to say I am able to look at myself in the mirror every day because of 2 people called Grandparents.

My daughter got accordianed in her little car a few years back - sandwiched between a one ton and a plumbing company van. She was alright because she had a seat belt on and an air bag. I was making payments on that little car and when they totalled it they didn't give me enough money to pay off the loan (another $1,300.00). I fought and fought with them before I got an ambulance chasing lawyer to talk to them. They came back with $20,000.00 offer. I told that ambulance chaser that all I wanted was the $1,300.00 to pay the car off and whatever his fees were up to that point. He was livid that his commission would not be very much. I got my $1,300.00 and a very nice letter of apology from the insurance company stating they would try to listen to honest people a little bit better in the future.

[Accountable]

nvalleyvee wrote: They came back with $20,000.00 offer. I told that ambulance chaser that all I wanted was the $1,300.00 to pay the car off and whatever his fees were up to that point. He was livid that his commission would not be very much. I got my $1,300.00 and a very nice letter of apology from the insurance company stating they would try to listen to honest people a little bit better in the future.
What're the odds the lawyer will ask you to be in his next commercial?

[nvalleyvee]

Accountable wrote: What're the odds the lawyer will ask you to be in his next commercial?


:yh_rotfl :yh_rotfl

[Accountable]

I wuz in a hurrible axidint. I did not no whut to do. So i called Jack Ripper and Asociates. He got me so much money, I had to give some back to keep my welfare!