$55 Million dollar judgement against the US Army

For a massacre in Iraq? War crimes in Afghanistan? No, this was in California, where a civilian employee of the US Army ran through a stoplight, collided with another car, and caused a four year-old Leilani Gutierrez to be completely paralyzed for life. This was also the largest personal injury award in the history of Orange County. Problem for the Army is, the man just happened to be on official business at the time. If an identical crash happened on his own time, in his own car, the amount would be covered by his insurance and would be far, far less. But the Army has a lot of money, so the court decides to award more as a result. Does this make sense?

Even the injured girl's family were not seeking punitive damages. So why should an award reflect the level of the plaintiff's deep pockets rather than the accident itself? Don't get me wrong here; I can hardly fathom what this girl has gone through, and her whole childhood has been shattered. In fact, I wouldn't put myself in the same situation for any amount of money, not $55 million or $55 billion - and that's part of the problem; you just can't put a $$ amount on something like this.

The inability to properly value such a condition in terms of dollars is another problem with our tort system, when one person gets thousands for such an accident, others get millions, and others get tens of millions. Why not some kind of standard baseline for injuries such as this? This might also help with the speed of the process; it took 5 years for the family to win the money, and may take still longer (the government may appeal the ruling). It might also help eliminate the legal maneuvering that often ultimately cheats clients in the end, as in the tragic paralysis case of Jason Nault, for example.

Of course, another problem is who pays. Not Michael Leinert, the driver that actually caused the crash, but US taxpayers, like me, who had nothing to do with it.

Beyond medical expenses, I have no idea what the girl should receive. But I know that others in the same situation should be treated the same way, and receive the funds in a timely manner so they don't have to mortgage their homes to pay the bills in the meantime, and then ask for astronomical sums so they will still have some money after the lawyers take their cut.

(Found via Overlawyered)





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