Fear of Law Suits

We live in a society, especially in the United States, that breeds fear in people.  What is this fear?  It is the fear of being sued.  No matter where we are or what we are doing, there is always someone waiting for us to slip up, claim we were at fault, and sue the living hell out of us.  Now, don't get me wrong, in certain situations I believe that law suits can be beneficial, but we have reached a point where even if we make a mistake, we can sue someone for the hurt we incurred on ourselves.  We have all probably heard about the McDonald's law suit some years ago in which a lady spilt hot coffee on herself, got burned, and sued McDonalds' for millions because the cup did not say it had a hot beverage inside.  That perhaps could be one of the most absurd law suits I have ever heard of although there are plenty out there that come close.  It seems most of the absurd or frivolous law suits are waged against businesses, corporations, or schools because it is felt they have more money and can bear paying for someones injuries.  There is another incident that I heard of locally in which a teacher filed a law suit against the school she works in.  The incident occurred over the winter months when there was plenty of ice and snow to make surfaces slippery.  The maintenance crews had sanded all the side walks and parking lots as best they could to help gain traction on the ice and all the snow was plowed away.  With the sand spread, this teacher slips and falls on the ice claiming she hit a spot that wasn't sanded and hurt her elbow.  So what happens, she sues.  Why?  Mostly because she couldn't look where she was walking or didn't take her time, got hurt, and wanted to place the blame elsewhere than on her own stupidity. 

Lets be honest here, if nothing was sanded and there was a sheet of ice covering everything, she might have had a case.  Even if nothing was sanded however, doesn't ice normally dictate that someone should be careful and take their time when walking?  I would think so.  Now what happens to the school that has to deal with the law suit, shell out however many thousands of dollars in legal fees, and still maintain their budget.  In this economy, when budgets everywhere are stretched thin, schools especially can not afford law suits.  Businesses as well could be put right out of business if a law suit big enough hit them.  It seems no matter how many safety precautions that institutions take, there is always something overlooked.  If we were to lay heated coils in the sidewalks and pavement to melt the ice, create cordoned walkways to keep people off of slippery surfaces, and placed bright neon yellow signs every 3 feet indicating where people should walk, someone will still get hurt.  It may not be on the sidewalk, but it could be that a neon yellow sign catches the sun wrong, reflects into the eye of a pedestrian, and causes them to walk smack into a closed door thus knocking them flat on their arse.  They would probably sue over that as well claiming the signs were too bright. 

I have said this before, but I feel that it can never be repeated often enough; people need to take responsibility for their own actions.  If I was walking, slipped and fell, I would mostly consider myself an idiot and if I wasn't hurt, would probably laugh it off.  I would not go looking for the closest home or business to place responsibility elsewhere, it was my fault.  I personally can't fathom how people would want to eek out vengeance for something that they did.  It seems that they have personal issues, whatever they may be, and they can't get over them.  It could be that they have self image problems and the thought of others witnessing them committing an act of stupidity (like slipping and falling on ice) is what is driving their need for vengeance.  I don't have the answers, but it is not just people that are to blame, it is the lawyers as well who advertise their services for any who are injured.  It doesn't matter how you injured yourself or what happened, there could be a viable lawsuit that could be filed against another party.   Lawyers should, for their own part, exercise a little self restraint when it comes to accepting frivolous law suits.  Perhaps the courts would free up a bit and allow for more expedited outcomes for more serious cases.  In general, people need to be more aware of what is going on around them and pay attention to what they are doing.  Lets all put down the iPhone or personal assisting device and look at where we are walking today or maybe even pay attention to where we are driving so we don't end up hurting ourselves or others around us.