<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">In the USA, unlike most other countries, an unsuccessful plaintiff is usually not liable for the defendants legal costs. Combine this with "no-win, no-pay" contingency fees for plaintiffs lawyers, and you have a situation where in all but the most egregious cases a plaintiff has literally nothing to lose in filing a suit. <BR>
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This, combined with the dismal educational level of most jurors (Claudius Ceasars definition of a jury could have been written for the US - "12 men who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty") forces most defendant companies to adopt almost a 'settle at all costs' mentality, as a run-away jury can cost you millions. <BR>
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Remember the Dow-Corning class action suit over breast implants ? A multi-billion dollar jury award was overturned after a juror admitted to a reporter that the jury had believed Dow's scientific evidence that the disorders were not caused by the implants, but that "those poor women were so sick they deserved something", and tha Dow was rich enough to afford it. Dow settled out of court for hundreds of millions before the retrial rather than risk a similar jury that was just smart enough to keep quiet about such misconduct.<BR>
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Most of the absurd cases one hears about in the news are unsuccessful, but by the time the case is thrown out the press has lost interest, so all the readers remember is that the case was filed. <BR>
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U-Haul today announced that they will no longer rent trailers to Ford Explorer owners. No court has ever found the Explorer to be an unsafe tow vehicle - U-Haul's just sick of paying lawyers to fight the cases.<BR>
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Richard<BR>
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In a message dated 1/8/04 2:50:04 PM Pacific Standard Time, kschlote2@yahoo.com writes:<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"><B><I>Sean Galbraith <sean.g@paradise.net.nz></B></I> wrote: <BR>
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>One of the bad things about the whole european crap is that you are no<BR>
>longer allowed to use common sense.<BR>
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We have that problem down here too... you simply cannot legally define <BR>
"common sense" so it obviously does not exist... sad. maybe thats what <BR>
killed the dynosaurs.. the legislated themselves to extinction?<BR>
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Sean.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#4040ff" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">I don't know about anywhere else but in America you can sue for stupidity or lack of common sense and make millions.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#4040ff" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Ken</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
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