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Personal Responsibility Is In the Eye of the Beholder

“Personal Responsibility” Is In the Eye of the Beholder

I think almost everyone agrees that our legal system is overloaded in part by people who do silly things to hurt themselves, and then try to blame someone else for it. We all believe (at least theoretically) that we should take personal responsibility for our actions. The problems arise however when moving from theory to fact in assessing when we have caused our own problems, versus being wronged by someone else.

Two cases I have discussed among friends recently over dinner in Rochester are great examples of this phenomenon. In the first case, a rather large woman received an eye injury when she tried to squeeze herself into a Victoria’s Secret thong that was obviously several sizes too small. As she struggled to get into the thong, the side strap snapped, and a decorative emblem flew off and hit her in the eye. The woman then sued Victoria’s Secret claiming that the product was defective, and that she was owed a great deal of money for her injury. In the second case, a man who had rented a moped was injured when he fell off the back of the moped when he attempted to do a “wheelie”. He then sued the business from whom he had rented the moped, claiming the business was responsible for his injuries because it had failed to advise him not to try “wheelies” or other tricks on the vehicle.

I thought both of these cases were great examples of frivolous lawsuits and great examples of people failing to take personal responsibility for their actions. However, as I discussed these cases with friends over dinner, I was shocked to find that some of the folks actually sided with the plaintiffs. Most surprisingly, a majority of the women I spoke with sided with the super-sized gal over Victoria’s Secret, while none of the men did.

What did I learn from this? Apparently, “personal responsibility” is in the eye of the beholder. As an injury lawyer I still won’t ever take a case like either of these, because I believe the resources in our court system should be reserved for folks who have suffered significant injuries through no fault of their own. What do you think? Are you in favor of the plaintiffs in these cases or the defendants? Send me an e-mail at scott@cannonlaw.net and I will publish the results of this informal survey in next month’s newsletter.

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