Stephanie Mencimer

Tort Law Is Making Me Paranoid

I remember reading once about a funny psychological phenomenon among medical students, who often start to suffer from many of the symptoms of the diseases they study. I wonder if something similar happens to trial lawyers. After spending the past two years doing nothing but read about various lawsuits that stem from the wreckage of accidents and malpractice, I’ve often wondered how some lawyers ever manage to get out of bed in the morning, for a number of reasons.

Just from my own work, I now have heart palpitations every time I have to get into say, a Dodge Caravan, as I did last week for a drive to New York, or a Ford Explorer. I’ve seen too many lawsuits that revealed how poorly those cars fared in accidents. I hated to drive before, but now, after watching accident recreations of tractor trailers crushing passenger cars, I really don’t enjoy getting on the highway. There’s nothing like seeing trial exhibits of a doctor breaking his patient’s neck while inserting a breathing tube to keep you away from “elective” surgery. That tummy tuck is DEFINITELY out.

Bill Childs over at Torts Prof Blog has enlightened me about the dangers of amusement parks (as if I didn’t already suspect that those places were sort of a problem!). Visiting friends in the Virginia countryside last year, I watched in horror as they sent their 8-year-old daughter off to ride on a pink, kiddie ATV that screamed: lawsuit in abeyance. The death and destruction that’s at the heart of tort law has definitely given me a different, if possibly distorted, view of the world. Heart palpitations notwithstanding, it has its upside: I saw many compelling reasons to applaud my husband for going out to shovel the sidewalk late last night in our first snowstorm of the year…

Posted at 6:58 PM, Jan 22, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)