Criminal Law
Topic: Justice
One word that has been noticeably absent from your text and our discussions of the players in the system and the system in general is: JUSTICE. What does this word mean? In light of the systems we have in place to resolve disputes, do we truly achieve justice? Let’s look at a personal injury lawsuit. This is a true story:
Husband and Wife were driving on a road that goes through a parking lot. They had a six year old child in the back seat. A delivery truck coming across the parking lot hit them on the wife’s side. Wife had a minor head injury, a bad bruise on her hand and eventually suffered from disc damage in her neck. She was in severe pain for approximately one year. She then had surgery from which she recovered for several weeks. She works now and functions pretty well, but she will never have full mobility in her neck. The child was not injured at all, though she was scared and covered in glass from the shattered window.
Husband appeared to be uninjured other than minor cuts from the broken glass. He insisted that he was uninjured and refused to be treated at the scene or in the hospital. He insisted that his wife be taken care of. A few weeks later when husband went to his doctor, it was determined that he had an irregular heartbeat, commonly called A-fib. This condition is most likely caused by a trauma or shock. Because his heart beat was not monitored the day before and the day of the accident, it can not be proven that the accident caused this condition, though he and his doctors are quite certain that it did.
The police at the scene insisted that the delivery driver’s blood alcohol level be checked. She was taken to the hospital and checked and it was determined that she was driving under the influence of alcohol. Husband and Wife went to an attorney and filed a lawsuit against the driver of the truck, the company for which she was delivering and both of their insurance companies. The lawyer informed husband that they could not prove the causation element of his case (that is, that the accident was the cause of his condition) and so they should not sue on his behalf because they would most likely not win.
The lawyer believed that Wife had a very strong case and that filing on Husband’s behalf as well could compromise the success of Wife’s case. The couple agreed to file just on Wife’s behalf. Only the husband worked at the time of the accident and he did not miss any work due to the accident. Their medical insurance covered all of the medical expenses and the car insurance fixed the car, so they suffered no real out-of-pocket expenses due to the accident. The only issue of compensation for the couple is compensation for the wife’s pain and suffering from her neck injury.
What do you think would achieve JUSTICE here? The only way, in our civil justice system, to compensate her (them) for injuries is with a money judgment. Imagine that you are the jury. How much money would you award? Why?
What is the goal of justice? To compensate the victims? Punish the wrongdoers: the driver and/or the company? To deter companicgoes or drivers in the future?
