Personal Trainer sues NYC Parks after fall from rock sculpture
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I'd like to buy him a coffee from McDonalds |
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As a lawyer and a climber, the public perception that personal injury lawsuits are out of control is a false one created by sensationalistic and incomplete media coverage and one of the most effective misinformation campaigns ever perpetrated on this country by business groups posing as citizen groups in the '90s. This public misconception has led to terrible "tort reform" laws that protect big business and doctors from their own negligence and willful misconduct. Get the background here: hotcoffeethemovie.com/Defau… |
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David T.S. wrote:As a lawyer and a climber, the public perception that personal injury lawsuits are out of control is a false one created by sensationalistic and incomplete media coverage and one of the most effective misinformation campaigns ever perpetrated on this country by business groups posing as citizen groups in the '90s. This public misconception has led to terrible "tort reform" laws that protect big business and doctors from their own negligence and willful misconduct. Get the background here: hotcoffeethemovie.com/Defau… That is why lawsuits like this really piss me off. They reinforce the (mostly) false narrative about the prevalence of frivolous lawsuits. Worse still, they cause landowners and governments to become overly cautious and deny access to climbers, which is an unreasonable response because I am not aware of any landowner actually successfully being sued for allowing climbers to climb. In any event, our system works well enough and he will lose because of his assumption of risk combined with lack of any negligence on the part of the city. No "No climbing" sign? Gimme a break.I don't doubt that most lawsuits are legitimate to some degree (a very subjective determination). But we need a system that can quickly dismiss lawsuits like these, or even punish/fine the lawyers that bring these. How do we get common sense and personal responsibility back? How about the burglar that fell through the skylight and sued? Or the woman that was texting at the shopping mall and fell into the fountain, and sued? There are numerous examples that show something must change in our system. |
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David T.S. I am most definitely not a lawyer but I disagree about how common frivolous law suits there are. |
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The judge should just tell him that since he wasn't really successful at climbing it, he has no basis to claim anything. |
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FrankPS wrote: I don't doubt that most lawsuits are legitimate to some degree (a very subjective determination). But we need a system that can quickly dismiss lawsuits like these, or even punish/fine the lawyers that bring these. How do we get common sense and personal responsibility back? How about the burglar that fell through the skylight and sued? Or the woman that was texting at the shopping mall and fell into the fountain, and sued? There are numerous examples that show something must change in our system.We already have that system. This case will likely never go to trial. There are outliers of course, but what you don't hear about are the "outliers" on the other side where someone has a totally legitimate claim and gets totally screwed out of a reasonable outcome. The deck is stacked in favor of business / insurance companies. If anything, stories like this just further stack the deck in their favor since they are so obviously ridiculous. |
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Tort reform: |
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Greg D wrote:Tort reform: The loser pays the attorney fees for both parties.No need for attorny fee reimbursement, just arrest the little shit for vandalism. He said "i ran and jumped on it", an obvious attempt at knocking it over. |
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Why do attorneys wear neck ties? |
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According to the Post, lawyer in the case is Andrew Spinnell. andrewjspinnell.com/ He's primarily a divorce lawyer, but with a sub-specialty in school-related personal injury cases. You can just imagine what kinds of things he handles there given that he's taken this preposterous claim. My guess is he specializes in milking the system for money by getting settlements that avoid the expense of a trial. |
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OMG this is the kind of person who ruins it for the rest of climbers! Are you kidding me? He actually said this, and now he's suing??? I hope people give him so much s**t that he changes his tune. How irresponsible. |
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David T.S. wrote: Worse still, they cause landowners and governments to become overly cautious and deny access to climbers, which is an unreasonable response because I am not aware of any landowner actually successfully being sued for allowing climbers to climb.Lawsuit success is not a meaningful statistic. I know precisely one landowner that opens his land to climbing. He has been sued a half dozen times for climbing-related injuries, and though he's won every suit, he has also spent 4-5 figures defending each suit as well. I'm glad its him and not me. I'd have closed the land long ago. |
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Greg D wrote:Tort reform: The loser pays the attorney fees for both parties.That's already law in many states. |