Less people suing would reduce that. The problem is that people sue over everything, so why deal with the hassle when you can go into defense mode early and stave off frivolous court proceedings? I agree, it sucks.
3) I'd recommend anyone to watch Hot Coffee [1] which documents the lobbying and spin that encourages American citizens to think there is a problem with "frivolous lawsuits"
With language barriers, the people we initially had to deal with had no real capability to determine fault. I think the security people who took down the incident report weren't even the same security who had to deal with the actual incident. I'd have to imagine their practices are standard and are along the lines of "don't admit fault; make sure passenger signs what we want her to sign". They acted as investigators and signing coercers and little more. Any decisions that were made were made later on.
I was more upset with them trying to bill us three months later. We had filed a formal complaint on our last day of the trip over the poor response and had spoken with one of the guest services managers for close to 30 minutes. So when a letter from the cruise line came three months later, I was expecting an apology, not a bill.
When this happened, my wife was in the final year of law school, so our response to the bill was probably atypical of a normal customer response, but even when they told us we wouldn't be responsible for the money and that they'd give us a credit for a future cruise, they still made sure to dismiss their liability and deny that they breached any duties.
One of the gross things with the incident was that another passenger started cleaning up the blood because no crew was doing it. Another passenger was a doctor and stepped in to help stop the bleeding while we waited for a wheelchair to take us to the doctor.
Is there a movie based on the notion that anything that happens when you carry a cup of hot coffee in a motor vehicle is automatically your fault, and that 1000 burn injuries is no big deal when n >> 1000000000 cups served? I'd be more interested in watching that one, I think.
It would probably be more amusing for you to watch the movie where a guy gets handed a 190 degree cup of coffee (30 more than normal) in a flimsy paper cup.
The part where the cup disintegrates and leaves the person with 3rd degree burns on their crotch would be the highlight. The punch line would be the owner of the store saving $10 on coffee costs per month because he keeps the coffee too hot.
The problem is that people sue over everything, so why deal with the hassle when you can go into defense mode early and stave off frivolous court proceedings?
I suspect that going into "don't get sued" mode actually encourages lawsuits.
I read an article a while back that indicated the doctors with the highest rate of malpractice suits were not the ones who made the most errors but the ones who were the least empathetic. There has been at least one study that concluded insensitivity and poor communication after the incident was a major factor in the decision to sue.
One potential solution could be to adopt a UK-esque legal process whereby the loser of a tort suit pays the legal fees. If you risk paying huge legal bills by filing a lawsuit, you'll be less likely to do so unless the case is a slam dunk.
I hate this kind of thing. Why do we allow this sort of situation, where fear of lawsuits results in worse response/care?
I don't know exactly what would need to change, but this the legal process at its worst.