Silence In Court

I might be cheating slightly by categorising this as "news" because I can't relate it to a particular story, but I think it relevant to the topic.

It seems that adverts for "ambulance chasers" are on the increase. You know what I mean, the "if you think you might have a claim then come to us because it won't cost you anything". yet another great export from America. These really annoy me. They annoy me because they encourage people to take a punt on whether or not they might be able (note I say "able" not "entitled") to get some money off someone else.

People don't want to accept responsibility for their own actions these days. People want there to be someone to blame. By taking away consequences we make it easier for people to blame someone else, and not to think about their own involvement. We are becoming more and more a litigation culture. If something happens that we don't like then there must be someone we can sue. If we hurt ourselves then there must be someone we can serve a court order on.

No. Stop and think. If you tripped on a kerbstone maybe you should have been watching where you were going. If you burnt your mouth on a cup of coffee maybe it was your fault for not waiting for it to cool down.

We need to have a due legal system which means that people can claim and set the wheels in motion when they are entitled. But the way things are going people don't have to worry about any repercussions for themselves. And this is wrong. It might not cost them anything but the same cannot be said for the person, or company, getting sued or the tax payers.

This is not right. It isn't healthy for society. If clever lawyers are given more opportunities to twist gestures of goodwill into admissions of liability then more companies will stop helping their customers when things go wrong. More and more the line will be drawn that once it has left the door then it is the purchasers problem. One clever individual may get a nice payout by pushing a court action but society as a whole will be worse off.