Real nice comment Mark…do you work for the plaintiff’s firm? Guess the rental company and the insurance company should run MVR’s on all and just pass the charge on to the auto insurance premium and the rental charges. By the way, shouldn’t the police dept also pay under your logic for giving him his license back while being charged but NOT convicted of DWI? Or perhaps you and your firm would handle the discriminatory practices claim against the insurance company or car rental firm should they have chosen to not rent to Mr. drunk?
The award by the jury is utterly ridiculous. An award of $4.94mil against the insured (which had a contractual obligation to provide the insured with a rental car), and the rental car agency (which I suspect does not have a direct link to all police dept. MVRs) would lead one to believe the these two companies were wilful, wanton, reckless & malicious). How many of those jury members believe that they should pay if they made a similar oversight in their jobs? I sure hope this award is appealed and found unconscionable.
Mark wrote:
“Also, apparently he was recently released from jail on a prior conviction. Does this mean that he was arrested for an accident he had before? If Progressive had arranged for the rental car, it leads me to believe he was using their “bring you car in and we’ll take care of everything” claim process. They arranged for the rental car, probable due to the fact that his car might have already been wrecked. You have to look at the whole story that the media may not be reporting. Progressive should not have arranged anything for him, he should have gotten his own rental car.”
so what if he had a prior accident?
so what if he had a prior conviction?
so what if his previous car was wrecked?
so what if progressive DID arrange it FOR him?
at what point do we as americans demand that this drunken murderer is responsible for his OWN actions, and if his wife starves to death as a result of THAT, so what?
do we NOT know the DIFFERENCE between a perpetrator and a victim?
does the judge?
does the jury?
does your congressman?
This is a good example of why we need tort reform! Sooner or later the money supply will dry up and those that really need it will not be able to get one red cent!!!
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The main issue is still the ridiculously high award given by the jury.
If everyone was totally wrong, the jury should give a reasonable award to allow the family to live comfortable, but $24 Million!!!!
The attorneys make 33% or more on this, so that’s $8 Million. That’s equally ridiculous….
There is definitely something wrong with our system, since someone will have to pay for this. That someone is us – the consumer.
Real nice comment Mark…do you work for the plaintiff’s firm? Guess the rental company and the insurance company should run MVR’s on all and just pass the charge on to the auto insurance premium and the rental charges. By the way, shouldn’t the police dept also pay under your logic for giving him his license back while being charged but NOT convicted of DWI? Or perhaps you and your firm would handle the discriminatory practices claim against the insurance company or car rental firm should they have chosen to not rent to Mr. drunk?
This is certainly tragic. But $24 Million is more than any family needs, even in light of this tragedy.
It would be nice of our justice system would make it mandatory to inforom jurors of the following before deliberation:
1. A spreadsheet showing what it would take for a family to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
2. Number of large awards (anything over $1,000,000.) made in courts throughout the US for current year as well as past five years.
3. Impact these types of awards have on insurance companies and rate increases
4. Impact this could have for the jurors themselves.
If jurors ultimately have to contribute money to supplement high awards, they might look at things differently.
You are right on target. One more gross miscarriage of justice chalked up. Harris County once again shows the level of intelligence of their jurors.
You are right on target. One more gross miscarriage of justice chalked up. Harris County once again shows the level of intelligence of their jurors.
You are right on target. One more gross miscarriage of justice chalked up. Harris County once again shows the level of intelligence of their jurors.
The award by the jury is utterly ridiculous. An award of $4.94mil against the insured (which had a contractual obligation to provide the insured with a rental car), and the rental car agency (which I suspect does not have a direct link to all police dept. MVRs) would lead one to believe the these two companies were wilful, wanton, reckless & malicious). How many of those jury members believe that they should pay if they made a similar oversight in their jobs? I sure hope this award is appealed and found unconscionable.
Hey Adjusters:
Add this to the checklist of things to do:
1) Must run MVR before approving a rental for any insured who wants a rental car.
Failure to do so may subject your company to an outrageous verdict, although there was no “active” negligence on its part.
Mark wrote:
“Also, apparently he was recently released from jail on a prior conviction. Does this mean that he was arrested for an accident he had before? If Progressive had arranged for the rental car, it leads me to believe he was using their “bring you car in and we’ll take care of everything” claim process. They arranged for the rental car, probable due to the fact that his car might have already been wrecked. You have to look at the whole story that the media may not be reporting. Progressive should not have arranged anything for him, he should have gotten his own rental car.”
so what if he had a prior accident?
so what if he had a prior conviction?
so what if his previous car was wrecked?
so what if progressive DID arrange it FOR him?
at what point do we as americans demand that this drunken murderer is responsible for his OWN actions, and if his wife starves to death as a result of THAT, so what?
do we NOT know the DIFFERENCE between a perpetrator and a victim?
does the judge?
does the jury?
does your congressman?
This is a good example of why we need tort reform! Sooner or later the money supply will dry up and those that really need it will not be able to get one red cent!!!