She is suing Colgate for a total of $100,000. $6,000 for dental treatment so far and $94,000 for future treatment.
Excuse me while I Laugh My Ass Off.
Needless to say, no dental bills were produced and no Dentists called to testify.
Another day, another idiot lawsuit dies.
A B.C. woman, who sued Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc. over allegations she suffered serious injuries when a toothbrush broke apart while she was brushing her teeth, abandoned her lawsuit on Wednesday.
And it only cost $30,000 for Colgate's defense costs. Thank this moron for increases in the price of your toothpaste.
Oy!
And it only cost $30,000 for Colgate's defense costs. And people said Herman Caine must have been guilty because the National Restaurant Association went ahead and settled with the women who claimed that they had been harassed by Caine.
ReplyDeleteI'm at the cantankerous point in my life where I think any of these greedy losers who bring frivolous lawsuits - and the greedy loser lawyers who take the cases - need to serve time in jail for doing so.
ReplyDeleteWhere the F does it stop?
Comments are where it's at.
ReplyDeleteI'll be watching this one closely. If she gets a nickel from this, I'm off to the bathroom to jam a Q-Tip into my ear for my payday.
Yeah, that happened to me too. Since that terrible night I have been impotent, have had low self esteem, can't make friendships, have gained weight, can't win any lotteries, lost my library card, have always voted NDP, lost jesus as my personsal saviour and have hissy fits in post office waiting lines. I am sueing for 4 million dollars, or maybe 40, I am not sure, the volices that guide me leep changing.
Great point, Matt.
ReplyDelete"and the greedy loser lawyers who take the cases"
ReplyDeleteHere's the win, two lawyers told her to take a hike. That's why she was represnting herself:)
Hmm. I have a different take on this.
ReplyDeleteI can visualize the injury quite clearly. So, you brush your teeth. Not uncommon to brush quite vigorously. Scrub, even. Now suddenly the toothbrush breaks.
Now you jab that shard of plastic full on into your gums. Ouch. I can see that causing some substantial damage.
I don't see the evidence in the writeup that this definitely happened - but then I don't see the evidence that it didn't, either. On the face of it I don't see this as a frivolous lawsuit at all. Presumably the woman has some evidence that the injury did in fact occur or it would have been thrown out prior to now.
Why did the toothbrush break?
Maybe because of a freak manufacturing defect which no company could reasonably have foreseen. Maybe because the plastic it is made out of was too hard and brittle for the application, and some product designer could reasonably have foreseen that applications of force consistent with normal use could have snapped the toothbrush. We don't know.
If someone was injured by a poorly designed toothbrush, what would the case look like? Why not like this case?
I can think of a few reasons:
- first, I'd expect more than one serious injury. However, if the toothbrush were withdrawn from the market and redesigned quickly, then maybe it would only be a breaks, with fewer injuries, and only one serious one. So unlikely a design flaw, but not impossible.
- second - why did no lawyer take the case? I imagine a decent lawyer in the US could have gotten some substantial but not outrageous settlement without a trial in the US. I'm not familiar enough with Canadian law to judge. Perhaps the lawyers did not take the case because she had no good case, or was unwilling to settle for a reasonable sum. Perhaps the lawyers didn't take the case because these sorts of things are un-winnable. I don't know. (I didn't see a reference to the lawyers who didn't take the case in a quick read through of the links - if there was an explanation I missed it.)
- the biggest "tell" is the amount of money sued for. Yes, $94K sounds a bit much for future expenses. But $6K strikes me as a bit low... how does one go about obtaining restitution from companies for less than $10K?
- finally the woman doesn't seem too bright to attempt to sue and represent herself. She made some real blunders. A decent lawyer should have been able to do enough of the right kinds of discovery to get at the designers - the executives had nothing to do with it. Total fail.
I'm well aware of the problems of frivolous suit, but again this doesn't strike me as necessarily one on the face of it - could be a suit with some merit, brought by a very naive woman.
Frivolous suits do happen, but then manufacturers make crap products that hurt people, too. Any system by which manufacturers are insulated from frivolous suits insulates them from a good many valid ones as well. I'd agree the pendulum has swung too far but it's good to remember that products are generally better these days in some part because of the tort system.
lewy - if it weren't for the $94K thing, I would agree with you.
ReplyDeleteAnd the five years thing. And the lack of dental evidence provided. Not to mention that if someone is bleeding so profusely from the mouth that they faint, someone is most likely going to take them to an emergency room (even more evidence). Which doesn't seem to have happened, either.
Strange things happen, and companies have liability insurance for that reason. If, indeed, she did have an injury from the toothbrush and had the dental evidence to prove so, the company would have most likely settled for 10K because it would have been cheaper than their time fighting.
If she did indeed have a mouth injury, she got greedy.
I have no problem with suing companies that deserve it, and I fully agree that is the reason there is more safety in products today. My problem is with the swinging pendulum, which seems to be firmly encamped in consumer greed at the moment. Unfortunately, I think that is more of a cultural problem than one that can be cured with the minimal amounts of tort reform that can be accomplished within our system.
Also, I'd just like to put out there that reading the true Erin Brockovich story does no good for anyone's soul. Neither does learning that the founder of MADD ended up becoming a lobbyist for restaurant alcohol and fighting the .08 limits.
She must have been brushing her teeth rather vigorously to not only break the brush but also sustain gum trauma resulting in massive blood loss (was she taking warfarin? If she actually had enough blood loss to lower her BP to the point of syncope, SOMETHING was going on.)
ReplyDeleteGingivitis manifests after years of plaque buildup. Is she saying she never brushed her teeth again? Yeah, right. Her gum injury, once treated, probably healed rather quickly (or is she a poorly-controlled diabetic, with poor healing abilities?)
If she has no other aggravating medical conditions, and if she has a history of filing lawsuits, my guess is she's lying through her teeth (pun intended). She probably thought the low dollar amount would result in a quick settlement.
Five years, no medical records showing treatment...*GONG*
Also note that one of her strategies was to bar experts from Colgate from testifying but demanding that a company official, who has no technical knowledge to bring to the case, testify.
ReplyDeleteI also did not see any mention of the toothbrush. Where is it? If she was injured by a toothbrush that broke, did the toothbrush break because she had tried using it as a crowbar to open a sticking drawer?
There is just too much "Well people get rich in the US doing this, so why not here?"
If there was any evidence that suggested that the toothbrush was faulty, then, by all means, let's do it. But to offer no evidence -- not even a report from a dentist or hospital, and try and bar experts from the company from testifying? -- gives a certain stench to her case.
There is a plethora of stinky cases out there, but it's not just the legal system that's broken.
ReplyDeleteI've been working on a post about the state of the health care delivery system in the US; it's falling apart. All the far-left socialist policies that have been heaped on the field have have dragged the system down into a nightmarish hell.
If you think your wait in the ED is long now, just wait. Soon there will not be an ED for you to go to if you're having a heart attack or have minutes to live from a crush injury. The EDs are closing because most of the patients are non-emergent drug seekers (ED's are required to provide pain meds if a patient says they are experiencing pain), or (sadly) low-income, uninsured young parents with a sick child who just needs a scrip for antibiotics.
Insurance costs (and our national deficit) are through the roof because every 85 year old with terminal cancer and a bad hip gets a hip replacement. Every 40 year old with indigestion receives a wheelbarrow full of tests because the doc has to cover his ass from a malpractice suit. Every alcoholic with end-stage liver failure is spending three nights a week at the hospital for very costly procedures and care, so he can go home and drink away his last months of life.
It's a crazy, dizzying spiral down the rabbit hole. Everyone sees it. No one knows how to stop it. Every day there is more mandated paperwork and less patient care, more bureaucracy and fewer docs and nurses, more insanity and less control of the system.
It scares the hell out of me; for my family, for my friends, and for my legitimate patients who are truly sick or hurt.
The funny thing is, catastrophic-only medical insurance is relatively inexpensive. It's the coverage for runny noses that is really expensive.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that there is a disconnect between getting medical care and paying for it. If people never see the bill for going to a doctor for some insignificant little ailment, they see nothing wrong with doing it.
It is similar to taxes -- Rush Limbaugh has said many times that if people actually got paid their entire pay check then had to write a check to pay their taxes -- as opposed to withholding -- there would be a revolution. But out of sight, out of mind.
Also, it is funny how many doctors charges are based upon what they would get after insurance. Rush has also said that if you pay for it yourself on the spot, you can get a good deal.
ReplyDeleteSad part is that most hospitals have no clue what to bill you for. I once when in for a treadmill test. I wanted to pay up-front. But they said they did not know what to charge. I can understand if you get treatment, but what part of "cardio stress test" is not clear?
Add to that that many hospital billing employees must be either drunk or stoned. You get messed up bills, and they blame the fact that your bills are messed up on you.
About a decade ago, I wrote and called for months trying to get a bill from the dr. office for a "meet the doctor" appt. Didn't come, didn't come, they don't know why...
ReplyDeleteThen I finally get a bill with the total highlighted in yellow marker PAST DUE. The next communication I had was in person and looking back, it's good I didn't have the CWP then.
(OK, just kidding about that last part but it might give you an idea of how incredibly frustrated and angry I felt)
lewy, products are exhaustively tested before coming on the market and I'm sure Canada is no different. But you already know that :-)
ReplyDeleteflorrie - that just happened to me with chest xrays from over a year ago!
ReplyDeleteI am getting so crotchety in my old age that if that ever happens to me again, I will have a lawyer call them.
ReplyDeleteBefore I moved up here, I had to go to the emergency room in a Seattle hospital. I had insurance, and I had also paid several hundred dollars towards my part of the bill. After I moved up here I started getting nasty phone calls from the hospital. I kept telling them that I had not received a bill for the remaining charges even though they had my address.
"We'll send you out a statement right away.”
"You do realize that Canada is a foreign country and sending mail to me will require more postage."
"Oh yes, we know what we are doing."
No statement. Sometimes I would get another nasty call, other times I would call them.
"We sent you out a statement on (whatever date)."
"I didn't get it."
"We'll send you out another statement right away.”
"You do realize that Canada is a foreign country and sending mail to me will require more postage."
"Oh yes, we know what we are doing."
We went through that cycle at least four times. We asked them for a copy of the entire list of charges, which I had never seen. We did received that, and, sure enough, it had only 39 cents postage on it (the US rate at that time). I guess it had slipped in through the Christmas deluge. It did take a while, though, and in the meantime, we had requested another copy. That person said “I will put a rubber band around it so the mailroom has to actually look at it rather than just run it through the postage machine.” That statement came shortly after the first. They were different.
One of them had a total (before insurance) of about $17,000. By this point, I wrote the hospital ombudsman. I did not hear back, so we called. They had not received my letter. We explained the situation. When I told her about the statement for $17,000, she said, “There is no way it should have been that high for what you had done.” I sent her a copy of the statements and a copy of my first letter.
She had the remaining balance written off. It would be nice if hospitals got billing people who knew what they were doing.
afw, isn't the stupidity just unbelievable? We never went back to that clinic.
ReplyDeleteMatt, that's terrible! Morons! And the postage was STILL wrong after all the times you told them!
ReplyDeleteI had a call from a frickin' COLLECTION agency last year about a lab bill for $17. I said we had never rec'd a bill. After some investigation (by me, naturally), it turns out the lab had mis-transcribed the numbers of our address and after sending 3 bills to the WRONG address with no response, they turned it over for collection.
I was beyond furious. I will go to great lengths to straighten out a mistake when it comes to something that could jeopardize our credit rating. The MORONS had our phone number but didn't ever bother to call.
You know what I do now? I keep track of claims reports from our insurance company and if I don't receive a bill in a month, I call whatever office generated the charge (and sometimes that's in another state!) So I can imagine your frustration with trying to resolve the problem occurring between two *countries*!
lady red - not to be perfectly tedious, but I'm figuring the woman had a vasovagal response as opposed to actually "bleeding out" through her gums enough to lose consciousness.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine sliced his finger open with a knife in the kitchen during a house party some years ago. Didn't bleed out - not nearly - cut quite deep, several stitches, but no major vessels - did turn quite white and had to lie down before he fell down. Some people are susceptible to this, some not.
My assumption is that the accident happened - I would not expect all the evidence to be recounted in every story; without e.g. affidavits from the family, medical records, etc, I don't suppose the suit would have gotten as far as it did.
The suit itself was screwy, to be sure. Whatever she was thinking representing herself, well, that didn't work out. Naive at best. At worst, not just greedy, but greedy and stupid.
About the ER docs - I hear you. I've heard it first hand from these docs, what it's like having to deal with junkies fishing for a fix on a daily basis. Society is basically outsourcing opiate addiction management to these doctors because we don't seem to be able to deal with the problem politically.
Society is basically outsourcing opiate addiction management to these doctors because we don't seem to be able to deal with the problem politically.
ReplyDeleteThat's another reason health care costs are so high. Those people usually don't pay and usually don't have insurance. Funny thing, though: they still get treated.