Saw a story this morning where a retired guy on a motorcycle was struck and killed by a young girl distracted by texting. The family of the guy is suing the girl, but also the two guys who were texting her at the time, the assumption being that they are partially responsible for texting her, knowing that she was driving at the time.
Whoa! I'm no legal scholar but how can you be sued for texting somebody while sitting on your couch? It is 100% the responsibility of the DRIVER not to answer or even look at the text while driving.
In order for this to be a thing, the assumption must be made that young people are mentally, physically, and emotionally incapable of not acknowledging a text, the second that they receive one. I realize that this is practically the case with most kids, but if you claim to be responsible enough to drive, then you must accept 100% of the responsibility for safe operation of your car. i.e., how can somebody outside the car be held responsible for its safe operation?
The judge needs to throw this out, it's a bad idea.
If you think I'm wrong, jump on in the mosh pit and let's get our debate on. ;-)
2 comments:
I hope it's thrown out immediately, but the defendants will still be forced to hire leeches - uh, lawyers.
We need a loser pays rule in the country so bad.
Agreed, and I'm not one to hold up foreign legal systems as that to which we should aspire, but England's loser-pays tort system would revolutionize this country's litigiousness.
But as long as the trial lawyers have their collective hands around the throats of politicians, there will be no tort reform in the US any time soon.
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