Hey, the oil companies found themselves with a choice: ethanol or MTBE. One was more expensive. The other was toxic. Guess which one they picked.
I have little sympathy that they now may suffer the consequences of their actions. Increasing shareholder value is no excuse to break the law, or even to behave unethically.
Attorney fees are a great way to get lawyers to go after criminals who have vast resources with which to defend themselves. Sure, individual victims may not see much compensation, but if the company is punished financially for its misbehavior then something good was accomplished.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle between Dr. Zycher and Anonymous. I've worked on tort cases, as my father is a tort lawyer and provided me with wonderful work experience that made sure I will never, ever be a lawyer. He holds much the same opinion of cross-state class-action lawsuits: They are useless and filed only to enrich the attorney.
In-state class action lawsuits are much more useful and typically have real results and benefits for the plaintiffs.
2 comments:
Hey, the oil companies found themselves with a choice: ethanol or MTBE. One was more expensive. The other was toxic. Guess which one they picked.
I have little sympathy that they now may suffer the consequences of their actions. Increasing shareholder value is no excuse to break the law, or even to behave unethically.
Attorney fees are a great way to get lawyers to go after criminals who have vast resources with which to defend themselves. Sure, individual victims may not see much compensation, but if the company is punished financially for its misbehavior then something good was accomplished.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle between Dr. Zycher and Anonymous. I've worked on tort cases, as my father is a tort lawyer and provided me with wonderful work experience that made sure I will never, ever be a lawyer. He holds much the same opinion of cross-state class-action lawsuits: They are useless and filed only to enrich the attorney.
In-state class action lawsuits are much more useful and typically have real results and benefits for the plaintiffs.
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