A Jeannette woman who was slightly injured after being struck by a train while walking along railroad tracks sued Norfolk Southern Corp. Thursday for failing to warn pedestrians that trains travel on tracks. Patricia M. Frankhouser, of 910 Scott Ave., is seeking an unspecified amount in excess of $30,000 from the Norfolk, Va., rail transport company for the Jan. 6 incident that left her with a broken finger, cuts on her hand and pain, according to the suit.I'm amazed that she was hit by a train and sustained such minimal damages. Perhaps Norfolk Southern Corp. could argue that the claims are fraudulent using evidence from prior human-train interactions. How do we stop those who take advantage of the loopholes in our legal system? Here are a few ideas:
- A new law which states that if a judge rules that a lawsuit is frivolous, the defendant is automatically awarded 50% of the original claim amount from the Plaintiff as compensation for libel. (Frivolous will be defined as either an unreasonable claim or an unreasonable monetary demand.)
- Any lawyer who brings forth a case later judged as frivolous loses their license to practice for 2 years and then must retake and pass the bar exam to get it back.
- Any lawyer who brings forth a second such case is banned from the legal profession completely, including jobs like assistant, secretary and law office janitor.
- Out of court settlements are limited to 10% of the original claim amount. (Without any other restraints, this would have a tendency to make the demand amount go through the roof but if the definition of frivolous included a legitimate complaint coupled with an outrageous claim amount, I think that this could help make claims reasonable and make it less profitable to file lawsuits merely to obtain a settlement.)
- Plaintiffs who file one lawsuit ruled to be frivolous lose the privilege of levying another lawsuit for a period of 10 years.
I would like to see a cap on attorney’s fees in medical malpractice suits. It might take some of the incentive out of going for astronomically high non-monetary damages in such cases if the attorney won’t get a percentage above a certain level. We are loosing very good doctors here in PA because they can’t afford the medical malpractice insurance. Our Democratic governor is a Philadelphia lawyer and his wife is a judge. Things are not going to change for at least two more years. Many of the doctors who will practice here speak English as a second language and frankly, when it comes to my health, I would like to be able understand completely the instructions from my doctor.
Tort reform is overblown. Rich corporations don’t need help from the government, people do.
Sounds good to me, we need lawyers for much much more serious things.
There are good lawyers out there and those good ones habr to put up with goofy stuff. I wonder how bad she was hurt....A Train! Ahh, trains are pretty forceful and go full speed ahead!
I like your thoughts!
The government’s job is not to pick losers and winners; it is not to help one over another. The government’s job is to provide a framework for law and order and the provision of some services beneficial to all citizens (roads, etc.) and the defense of the nation.
It is a good idea when comparing corporations to people to remember that these nasty evil rich corporations provide direct benefits to 1. their customers, 2. their employees, 3. their shareholders, 4. their suppliers. Last time I checked, every one of those four groups were people.
One more point: those rich corporations also provide tax revenues to the government which are used for governing (and benefiting) the people.
Umm, isn’t it illegal for people to walk on train tracks in the first place? I grew up about a block away from a nice bustling set of railroad tracks and I used to play there day in and day out, always very observant of police because of the one time we got caught and hauled off to the police station.
Of course, that didn’t stop us from playing there. It just made us more aware of our surroundings. Now, I am not a lawyer and I am not trying to make stuff up, but I could have sworn that in most states, the state itself owns all (or most) railroad tracks and X amount of feet on each side of the tracks. The state then leases the tracks to the railroad companies.
So this woman is trying to sue when she was trespassing on federal land?
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
And now the reality of what will happen with this claim. The Judge should throw it out after the insurance carrier files for Summary Judgement...However, Pennsylvania requires a significant amount of Discovery take place prior to a decision on Summary Judgement. That, of course, will cost money...to the defense...which is passed onto the overall premium pricing to all parties holding that entity as their insurance carrier.
So, in an effort to take the most cost effective path, the insurance carrier will be forced to make a nuisance offer to the plaintiff and her attorney...That will equal the cost to defend..which is where the $30,000 demand comes from. I suspect our plaintiff attorney friend here does this quite a bit...He knows how much he can squeeze out of the carrier.
My favorite suggestion for tort reform is the losers’ pay scenario with the Dan Quayle modification.
Losers’ pay (or “how almost everyone one else in the civilized world plays") is a big discentive for nuisance lawsuits. The losers not only have to pay court costs, but for the winner’s legal fees.
One of the objections to doing this in the States was that the winner could spend millions of dollars on legal fees and then stick the poor plantiff with the bill. Dan Quayle came up with a clever modification to the standard loser’s pay scenario. His suggestion was that:
Losers’ pay all court costs plus the winner’s legal bills capped at the amount the loser spent on his own legal fees.
I love this suggestion and someday hope to see it implemented.
If she is genuinely unaware that trains run on tracks, maybe she ought sue her pre-school teacher…
I definitely think the best way is to punish lawyers who bring frivolous suits. They’re usually the ones to blame.
http://king-of-fools.com/blog/trackback/1427/urkbJ0eU/
Sigh... Pittsburg Tribune-Review - A Jeannette woman who was slightly injured after being struck by a train while walking along railroad tracks sued Norfolk Southern Corp. Thursday for failing to warn pedestrians that trains travel on tracks. Patricia M. Frankhouser,...