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Capt JT.....
I understand your concern....
In the late 70's I was an expert witness in a wrongful death suit in a cave
death...My expertise was and is in air measurement. When I did that case, I
worked
for EPA. In the years since that, I have been an expert witness over 60 times
in
air pollution cases, acting for both plaintif and defendant in civil and
criminal
cases including two wrongful death cases.
From my limited experience, it is several groups causing
most of the suits.
1. Survivors wanting to blame someone to get closure.
2. Lawyers wanting the cash......they go after anyone with deep pockets.
3. Parties involved in the death who want to blame someone
else because of real guilt or because they feel guilt for not
being able to help enough.
4. Persons who just want to exploit the situation.
5. Persons who want to punish those who were really guilty.
For example, the dive boat that left two divers on the
Barrier Reef. Usually the diver lost is the husband, father,
and bread winner of the family. That is a major loss.
Lawyers work by a code of ethics that most of us do not
understand. While they may not agree or even like their client,
they are the clients advocate. They often find themselves
advocating positions that they do not agree with. Like it or not
it is the obligation of the opposing attorney to make sure that
it doesn't work. If both lawyers are good, the truth will come
out.
We are not going to change that.
It does impact us as divers, particularly when we travel and
get assigned a "buddy" on their first open water experience after
training. It is not their fault that it is their first dive, I had a first
dive too. Bet most of us did not skip to the 200th dive.
It has driven me to mostly solo diving or diving with really good
divers.
It impacts all businesses and homeowners. You have to have lots
of insurance. While the insurance companies "complain" about
big settlements, they are croc tears. Those settlements make
people and companies buy bigger policies driving up profits.
We ain't a gonna change that either.
We ain't a gonna change human greed.
Sorry for the bad news Capt JT, most of us are frustrated by
the process too.
Sorry for getting on the soapbox folks. The process hits my
nerves even if I am involved.
Putting on my nomex drawers getting ready for the
flames from the groups listed in items 1,2,3,& 4.
For the persons in item 5, I feel their pain. If we take
responsibility, we take responsibility.
Getting down from the soapbox and suiting up.....
Over 8,000 lifetime super stroke dives since 1951
and still counting and three bad dives.
Tom
Capt JT wrote:
> Doug
> Thanks for your answers, I just keep finding it very disturbing that these
> lawsuits keep coming up against the buddy of the deceased diver.
>
> Maybe the lawyers that lurk on these list that look for accidents should
> ask themselves "How many divers have I or will I kill by forcing them to
> dive solo for fear of being sued".
>
--
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