Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfitz
The reason these suits take place is because it costs next to nothing to file them, there's nothing to lose if you don't win, and it's cheaper for manufacturers to settle than it is to defend themselves. Nuisance suits are rare in Europe, because there if the plaintiff loses they have to pay the defendant's costs, and if the suit is deemed frivolous they can even be made to pay a penalty. I haven't watched European TV, but I suspect that you don't see ambulance chasers trolling for business via TV ads there. Nuisance suit numbers skyrocketed in the US after lawyers were allowed by the Supreme Court to advertise on TV. Perhaps some UK members could tell us if there's any such thing as a contingency barrister.
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Bingo. I've actually lived through this myself. I had someone in front of me stop MID-INTERSECTION while making a right turn at a stop sign. I of course pulled up to the sign once she started off so I could see if it was clear for me to proceed (side street onto 45 MPH main road). Needless to say, I bumped her when I pulled out. Mind you I had only moved about 10' feet so speed was negligible. She got out and said she was fine so we started to exchange some info. She had no damage but I caved my bumper cover and busted a headlight and header bar.
About 5 minutes later her husband pulls up and is yelling at her to get back in the car and sit still. Then a cop shows and immediately starts yelling at him to leave. It turns out he's a well-known ambulance chaser. While they were arguing an ambulance shows up (husband-lawyer called for it). The cop actually told the ambulance to leave since they clearly were not needed (the woman kept insisting she was fine).
Long story short, the cop called me later that evening to let me know they turned up at the hospital later that night with complaints of "neck and back pain". He gave me all of his info (including personal info) and begged me to fight the inevitable suit because he was so tired of this guys antics. I was a bit perplexed by this, so I called my insurance carrier to tell them about the conversation. It turns out THEY were familiar with this asshat and already had it escalated for review before he even had a chance to file. In the end, they had a set dollar threshold (internal proprietary figures) that they used to determine whether to settle or fight. He asked for exactly $100 less than their threshold. They attempted an override but ultimately settled.
I'm not a fan of generalizations and broad statements, but most attorneys involved with personal injury law are among the lowest lifeforms walking the earth.