Nordschleife

have you thought how demoralising it must be for a dentist to work in Heavenly Bills? Peering all day into some of the most beautiful and well known mouths in the world, and discovering they have halitosis.

Better a one eyed skink in Florida

R+C

SpeedGeek

That's an interesting article on the legal fallout from Ben's tragic CGT accident last year. And it possibly explains why the 997 GT2 has PSM. But the 7GT3 does not have PSM, just TC like the CGT.


Lawyer statements like the following concern me:

Ok, so I'm not partial to BH dentists or lawyers.

SpeedGeek

Or a Beverly Hills OB/GYN.

Nordschleife

I have met a few of those. They all have **** eating grins.

R+C

DanH

Sounds like they have got a bit confused about their jobs

Nordschleife

How innocent you are within the M25!

R+C

Mark Dreyer

I love working on the Kissimmee Florida blue collar "rednecks". I wouldn't trade them for all the pretty smiles in Beverly Hills! Give me country folks any day! It's much easier to work with "real people"

SpeedGeek

But those guys don't have any teeth, do they?

Mark Dreyer

Enough of them have enough teeth to keep me in a GT3

BTW, what has 2 teeth and 20 legs?

Answer: The first row of the First Baptist Church of Kissimmee.

SpeedGeek

This thread has gone decidedly Foxworthy-esque.

You might be a redneck if:

You can spit without opening your mouth.
you have more fingers than teeth.
you refer to the fifth grade as "my senior year".
you take your dog for a walk and you both use the same tree at the corner.
you've ever been fired from a construction job due to your appearance.
You own a home that is mobile and 5 cars that aren't.
You own a homemade fur coat.
Your wife has ever said, "Come move this transmission so I can take a bath."
Your grandmother has ever been asked to leave the bingo hall because of her language.
You were shooting pool when any of your kids were born.
Your mother has "ammo" on her Christmas list.
You think "taking out the trash" means taking your in-laws to a movie.
Your mother does not remove the Marlboro from her mouth before telling the state trooper to kiss her ***.
You have a Hefty Bag for a passenger-side window.
You view the upcoming family reunion as a chance to meet women.
Your family tree doesn't fork.

......

blake

This is horrible and tragic in so many ways. When I heard about the lawsuit a year or so ago, I was convinced that the release would hold up in court. I remember Ben on this board, and he was a great guy. I keep thinking about his young son and wife, and both the pain and now financial loss that they had to incur because of this lawsuit. The notion of "inherent oversteer" as a design flaw? WTF! I am speechless. I agree that they had to settle, but how can this be considered justice? Hell, if I lost my family because of an accident with known risks, I don't think $4.5M minus hefty legal fees would lessen the pain in any capacity. To me, that is nothing less than blood money. This is total BS.

Very pissed off,
-Blake

SpeedGeek

Who are you pissed off at? These lawsuits have nothing to do with justice, and everything to do with an excessively litigious culture in the US, particularly California. When something goes wrong, you look for someone to sue. That's what people want. In the years I lived in California, I saw many no-fault ballot initiatives defeated at the polls (it would be interesting to know how Ben and his wife voted on those ballots).

It's all a bit ridiculous really. A legal system that encourages litigation by allowing insane punitive damages is more like some weird and twisted lottery than it is a system of justice. But it seems to be what most Americans want.

The accident is a tragedy. But the ensuing lawsuit is just business as usual in a society that loves finger pointing.

Marv

Ben's accident was a major tragedy for the community. It is horrible to see the legal fallout from this.

However, if you think our legal system is bad, you have not seen anything yet. There are more lawyers waiting to graduate law school right now than there are practicing in the USA.

SpeedGeek

OMG, is that true?

I think a major failing of human societies is their inability to find a reasonable balance on so many issues. Without enough civil litigation, people and companies are not held responsible for negligence, which is not good. But on the flipside, the results of excessive litigation are also not good. Where's the correct balance? We humans are like a pendulum - always swinging past the point of balance. It's our nature.

blake

Very bluntly, I am pissed at the wife of the passenger who died who thinks money will ease her pain, and more so at the lawyer who is taking advantage of the situation for cash. I agree that American's do tend to sue for everything, but by and large the system is relatively clean (unlike most countries). I think the problem lies in one of the cores of the system... I can't remember the term (I had a long night in Vegas last night) but basically it is the notion that if a similar lawsuit has been ruled upon, then that ruling should apply in this new case. I have many child hood friends that are now lawyers, and most agree that under this model, it is easier for common sense to be lost from the equation. Another issue is that most lawyer's tend to argue around the wording of the law itself, and not the intent. Personally, this drives me insane as many laws have been created with good intent, but with poor execution (wording, coverage, etc.)

I think this lawyer took advantage of the fine line between "negligence" and "gross negligence". Though his argument met all of the finer points of the law, it does not pass the average citizen's idea of common sense. Occasionally, you find a judge who is more "open" to interpretation. If this case had gone to trial, I think Ben's family had a chance to prevail - but that would have relied more on the openness of the judge.

-B