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Re: Sandy Hook families sue estate of shooter's mother
Another problem is with partial liability findings in civil cases; if you are found 5% liable (or, in other words, 95% not liable) then why should you be forced to make any settlement unless and until all of the other "guilty" parties are forced to pay up? Obviously your defense costs are still 100% even if your (potential) liability is not. If one was forced to face all parties at fault (in one case) then they could pool their defense resources making your odds of picking them off one by one far less.
There would be some very serious unintended consequences to loser pays. Primarily people with legitimate grievances who could not afford to pay if they lost would be very reluctant to bring their cases about.
Lawyers essentially act as a brake on unwinnable suits because they usually work on contingency and won't take a case that they don't see a chance of winning. That of course has downsides as well, for the most part in the area of class action suits, but there is no perfect solution.
What we obviously really need to do is change our mindset. Just because something had happens it doesn't mean someone is automatically liable. It's hard to see how a manufacturer should be liable for the misuse or illegal use of their product. Maybe as a first step the we need to reform law to get the "deep pockets" out of the picture in cases where there isn't a product defect.
Another problem is with partial liability findings in civil cases; if you are found 5% liable (or, in other words, 95% not liable) then why should you be forced to make any settlement unless and until all of the other "guilty" parties are forced to pay up? Obviously your defense costs are still 100% even if your (potential) liability is not. If one was forced to face all parties at fault (in one case) then they could pool their defense resources making your odds of picking them off one by one far less.