Shots Across the Bow

Cities are being forced to pay out large sums of money to people who are hurt while committing a crime.

In another instance, Angelo Delgrande shot and wounded his parents and himself in a June 1995 dispute. He then received surgery at a hospital in Westchester County, N.Y. That night, he yanked the tubes and monitoring devices from his body and tried to commit suicide by jumping off the second story of a parking garage. Now a paraplegic, Delgrande sued the hospital for failing to treat his depression and keep him indoors. He was awarded $9 million.

And in Oakland, Calif., a bank robber didn't know the bag of cash he stole contained a time-delayed tear-gas canister that went off, scorched him and sped his arrest. He sued the bank and the police for $2 million for burning him.

Reminds me of the guy who was shot while resisting arrrest in NYC, filed a lawsuit and won a couple million dollars.

Does this make sense to anybody?

Except trial lawyers, of course...

Here's one guy who agrees with the system:

"Just because somebody robbed a bank, doesn't mean that they have no legal rights whatsoever," said Mark Geistfeld, a professor at New York University's School of Law. "The idea that all of us deserve to be protected by the law, even while we're breaking the law, is something that we all will benefit from on a daily basis."

Yep, everyday as I rip off the corner market, I'm proud to know that if the owner tries to defend himself in any way, I can sue him into bankruptcy, getting all his worldy possessions.

Legally.

While it can be said lawyers are expected to mount the best campaign possible for their clients, the real blame lies with juries who are taken in by the stories and find for the "injured" parties. Until jurists can be properly educated in actual justice (or until we have more Henry Bone from "Picket Fences", who could always be counted on to overturn an unjust verdict) we will continue seeing these cases come to trial and the plaintiff be awarded damages.