Lawsuits for All

City Museum, wire tunnel, by Daniel Ramirez

Justice means, among many other things, equal protection for all. People tend to forget that this applies to tort actions as well.

In the United States, whenever someone sues a large business or a government agency, the first thing you normally hear in the press is the accusations by the Plaintiff's attorney. You rarely hear the defendant's side until much later (if at all), because they are afraid of saying anything that could hurt their case. The "no comment" usually comes in the form of: "Mr. [blank], a spokesman for [blank agency/company] claims they cannot comment on pending litigation".

Well, the thing is, it turns out that the United States has a 1st Amendment, and you can comment on it.

The City Museum in Saint Louis, (which has several interactive sections) got tired of this policy and has started naming and shaming people who are suing it. It's about time. Legitimate suits are one thing, but frivolous suits only serve to drive up costs for everyone else. Money Quote:

“Just to give you a quick glimpse into what we go through at the City Museum, a couple of years ago our rock fell 4 feet. The next day we had over 12 people call and tell us they were injured when the rock fell. To investigate these claims, we reviewed the video of the rock falling and we posted the video clearly showing that there was no one next to the rock when it fell on our website. When this was brought to several of the caller’s attention they either hung up or changed their stories.”

So the real issue here is, what has happened in similar incidents where the plaintiff in question didn't have happen to have video to protect itself?

Personally, I think the museum should have waited to announce the existence of the video only after people had officially filed their paperwork, so that they could then be prosecuted for filing false claims.

I'm very curious to see what affect this new policy has on future litigation at the museum.