Posted On: April 27, 2006, 1:57 pm CDT

Posted By: Jeffrey E. Martin

Hi Dawn:

When yu say you do med mal for a living, what specificaly do yo do? Hope you are not a doctor or other healthcare provider.

But you raise a vslid point. We need to be sure that responsibility is assessed properly. Home intruders should not be allowed to sue a homeowner if they trip running out the front door carrying a TV set.

What strikes me as odd is that for all of the talk about personal respnsibilty (which is something that a jury can compare in determing who was at fault), the entire corporate structure is based on shielding corp owners from personal responsibility. That's one reason for their incorporating - all they place at risk are the corp assets not their personal assets.

But no one objected recently to Blackberry's litigation settlement in which the winner received billions of dollars. Althoufh that is sure to affect someone's cost of doing business and, indirectly, raise the cost of goods, no one is proposing arbitrary limits on what corporations can recover.

Are you in favor of the trial by jury system as long as it does not involve frivolous lawsuits? Agree that arbitrary limits on recovery can result in injustice to injured people?