Sometimes there's no other way. Let me give you a personal example related to the auto industry.
My garage found that my Dodge Dakota needed new ball joints at 37,000 miles. Ball joints are generally engineered to last 100,000 miles and, at the least, should last longer than tires, wouldn't you think? A Dodge dealer confirmed that the joints were bad and replaced them at a cost of over $600.
It turns out that the ball joints on Dakota and Durangos are a chronic problem. Hundreds of complaints have been filed with the NHTSA over the issue and CBS News did several stories on Durangos and Dakotas that have crashed when the front wheel falls off due to a defective ball joint. It seems Chrysler went with a cheaper part, a non greasable ball joint, to save money. However, without grease any dirt wears away the fittings and, eventually, bang! The joint blows and the wheel falls off - doing thousands of dollars in damage to the vehicle even if it doesn't crash.
So far, thank heavens, no one has been killed or seriously injured. But has Chrysler order a recall? No. Has NHTSA ordered a recall? No.
At some point people will be seriously injured or die when a wheel falls off. Then some lawyer will sue Chrysler, win $100 million for his client and big business will cry about excessive, unfair damage awards. (But Chrysler won't REALLY care because the $100 million is still less than the cost of replacing ball joints on hundreds of thousands of vehicles.)
Yes, there is an epidemic of lawsuit abuse in America, but it would be far less of an issue if corporations, when things do go wrong, did right by their customers. As it stands now, corporations of every stripe, doctors, insurance companies et al do exactly the opposite - they clam shut and deny any responsibility until they get hauled into court.
And juries are delighted to award these outrageous damages, because they, like me, have been victimized in some small way by institutions that screw their customers. The lawyer says "Send a Message!" and the jury says "Yeaaah!!!"
When hospitals are paying 100s of millions to tort lawyer, of course the price of everything will go up. Or do you want all hospitals to go out of Business and close their doors. Like Tort lawyers have done to our small plane industry and many others |
