Dan Abel wrote:

>> No doubt both those numbnuts have watched 'Merican TV shows where everyone
>> sues everyone else for vast sums of money.
>
> These big lawsuits are big news. Somebody wrote a book about them.
> Many of them are indeed thrown out of court. Anybody can sue for nearly
> anything. Getting awarded money is another matter. If the award is
> unreasonable, it is appealed. Maybe by then, the person suing realizes
> that it isn't really somebody elses fault. They are offered a small sum
> of money to settle. A condition is that neither party reveal anything
> about the settlement.

One of the strangest cases I ever heard of happened here in Ontario a
few years ago. A woman sued her employer after she crashed her car after
attending a company Christmas party. From what I remember of the
details as reported in the newspapers, she had had a glass of wine at
the Christmas party (maybe two). They had offered her a ride home but
she declined. She then drove to a bar where she had a lot more to drink
and then she crashed her car on the way home from the bar. The company
was found partially responsible and the bar had a greater culpability so
the award IIRC was 25% for the company and 75% for the bar. However, the
bar was out of business and the employer had to pay 100%.

I find this one troubling because IMO the employer had been diligent in
offering her a ride. More important, she was not drunk when she left the
company party, and no evidence that she was over the legal limit to
drive when she left the company party. The way I see it, the company had
done nothing wrong up to the point that she left their function. Their
liability should have ended at that point. It was after she left that
party and went to the bar where she had more to drink... enough to be
intoxicated.

This puts a lot of people in a precarious position. My son had a bit of
a scare shortly after opening his new bar. There was a high profile
multiple fatality accident involving speeding cars and alcohol. The
people in one of the cars had been in his bar earlier in the evening.
Luckily, they had surveillance cameras and computerized records that
cleared them of any liability.