Family wants $990,500 for student's 'severe' basketball injury

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

Originally Posted by mick

I think the last four remarks were a bit cavalier.
The gymnasium was screwed up and unsafe.
A kid was hurt.
Someone must pay....

...35k for medical bills. Not necessarily 990k.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by A Pennsylvania Coach

...35k for medical bills. Not necessarily 990k.

That is still negligence. You shouldn't get away with just medical bills.

[Smitty]

It's also easy to jump to conclusions. No one knows how bad the kid was hurt or if he actually suffered any long term damage. No one knows if the accident was a freak accident or there really was a piece of metal jutting out from the wall just waiting for someone to rip their hand open on it. I can see paying the medical bills and maybe a little more if it really was an accident waiting to happen, but not a million dollars. Seems a tad excessive. Stuff happens. Sometimes an accident is just an accident.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Smitty

It's also easy to jump to conclusions. No one knows how bad the kid was hurt or if he actually suffered any long term damage. No one knows if the accident was a freak accident or there really was a piece of metal jutting out from the wall just waiting for someone to rip their hand open on it. I can see paying the medical bills and maybe a little more if it really was an accident waiting to happen, but not a million dollars. Seems a tad excessive. Stuff happens. Sometimes an accident is just an accident.

A million $$$ in Orange County is not the same as $1M in other parts of the country. Million $$$ homes in Orange county would be $150-250K in other parts of the country.

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

A million $$$ in Orange County is not the same as $1M in other parts of the country. Million $$$ homes in Orange county would be $150-250K in other parts of the country.

I'm pretty sure the school district (assuming it's a public school) is in pretty dire straits right now, since California is basically bankrupt.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Smitty

I'm pretty sure the school district (assuming it's a public school) is in pretty dire straits right now, since California is basically bankrupt.

That's a good enough reason to apply a proper face plate.

I wonder if the kid left the court legally....

[Amesman]

Originally Posted by mick

I wonder if the kid left the court legally....

And dang it, Mick, that was going to be one of my lines, before I took time to tap out the above.

[Amesman]

Just remember the old saying that anyone with a pencil and a filing fee can sue. Collecting is another matter.

(And once a jury does decide on a guilty verdict, if it gets that far, there is absolutely no science to whatever damages it grants, and no reference they can refer to -- except, of course, they have the plaintiff's suggested price tag. Very head-in-the-sand approach in that aspect, bordering on the bizarre.)

And face it: With just one newspaper article as our information, for now we have to call this one a HTBT.

Originally Posted by Amesman

(And once a jury does decide on a guilty verdict, if it gets that far, there is absolutely no science to whatever damages it grants, and no reference they can refer to -- except, of course, they have the plaintiff's suggested price tag. Very head-in-the-sand approach in that aspect, bordering on the bizarre.)

And there's no certainity that the jury's award will hold up. Some states are screwy enough that if the judge thinks the jury is wrong, he/she can just throw the verdict out completely. Of course, there's always the appeal process, in which a higher court can screw it up even more for one party or the other.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Smitty

I'm pretty sure the school district (assuming it's a public school) is in pretty dire straits right now, since California is basically bankrupt.

Not necessarily. The state is broke. There are talks about the state borrowing money from counties and municipalities. Orange County has a pretty wealthy tax base.

[basketballen]

Q: What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom to the ocean?

A: A good start.