Jury shoots down damages in golf-cart accident lawsuit

An Elk Grove Village man who claimed he suffered a broken leg because of his nephew's negligent golf-cart driving failed to convince a DuPage County jury he was entitled to any money from his younger relative.

[Greedy Lawyer]

This is why all lawyers are greedy, uneithcal scum until they proove otherwise. The law profession is at the top when it comes to what is wrong with us. There are few consequences to their greedy bad behavior.

[sankar]

do they charge the old man for expenses also?.what a horrible law suit.

[mike]

Bet it's going to be interesting around the Thanksgiving dinner table in this family

[Daleyfan]

good for jury. advice to uncle- next time hold on.

[suzyq]

Anytime you are riding in a golf cart and hear "yahoo" you better hang on big time.

[Dave]

$804,000 for a broken leg? What a greedy dirt ball! Even worse that the scumbag was suing his nephew.

[sowhat]

Misleading headline. Apparently the jury didn't find that the uncle didn't suffer damages, but that the nephew wasn't at fault or the uncle was guilty of sufficient comparative negligence.

However, it is clear that Bill Kurtis or Joel Daley don't report for the Tribune, nor does anyone with any sense of legal priniciples.

[Florida Jim]

Hooray for the jury, finally a sensible jury verdict. This man is a dunce for even thinking of suing over an accident. If more people understood accidents happen and some may be quite harmful it does not mean you should sue. SHhh, don't tell lawyers they will lose control while the ambulance gets away.

[Southside Hitmen]

Nice family.....

[DJ in the Burbs]

Easy to Monday morning quarterback without knowing all the facts or evidence. Also easy to comment when it wasn't your loved one injured or accused of causing harm to another. We all need to be more prudent and senisble with our actions, reactions and comments.

[A BLINKIN]

Any mention of a lawsuit brings out the circus freak lawyer haters, irrespective of the circumstances, and so it is here.

Strikes me that the lawsuit itself is not all that interesting. Surely even hate-lawyers crowd can agree that negligent golf cart driving can cause an injury, just as negligent auto driving can. So the bare facts of the incident are not all that remarkable.

What's "newsworthy" in the story is that it's a suit between an uncle and a nephew.

As for the "greedy" lawyer, all you need to know is he lost a bunch of money on this case, having taking that risk up front in exchange for a right to share in any recovery. Surely that must make you clowns happy.

====

Finally, here's something I don't understand about the lawyer-hating crowd. Civil juries (lawsuit juries) are drawn from the exact same pools as criminal juries. Exact. Same. Pool. When a jury makes a big rsonal injury award, you're outraged and decry how stupid they are. Yet when a jury decides someone should get the death penalty, you laud them for their wisdom.

You seem to place more value on money decisions than on life decisions. Sad.

[jjrg7]

What, you'd sue your own nephew. Once I was riding in a golf cart on somelandfill course near Batavia. There were some steep hills. Some young guys in front of us were driving crazy and ended up rolling their golf cart like a sommerault. They would have been crushed if not for the roof. They were laughing but the cart was trashed. Once I knew they were safe, it was pretty funny.

[Moe]

suzyq wrote:

Anytime you are riding in a golf cart and hear "yahoo" you better hang on big time.

Yeah, that's true. Also, every time you hear a politician yelling "change", you better hang on to your wallet big time!

[Moe]

Dave wrote:

$804,000 for a broken leg? What a greedy dirt ball! Even worse that the **** was suing his nephew.

This is why healtcare costs too much. Tort reform is needed before any kind of healthcare reform.

[Anne L]

Moe wrote:

<quoted text>
This is why healtcare costs too much. Tort reform is needed before any kind of healthcare reform.

What do healthcare costs have to do with this? It didn't cost $804,000.00 for medical bills. This is just for his pain and suffering. I'm sure Medicaid paid for the hospital stay.

[A BLINKIN]

jjrg7 wrote:

What, you'd sue your own nephew.

I'd be about 99.999% certain that the nephew was insured for this. The suit practically was against the insurer.

[A BLINKIN]

Moe wrote:

<quoted text>
This is why healtcare costs too much. Tort reform is needed before any kind of healthcare reform.

He. Lost. The. Case.

What "reform" do you propose: that we eliminate all lawsuits?

[moquif]

Moe wrote:

This is why healtcare costs too much. Tort reform is needed before any kind of healthcare reform.

Actually lawsuits take up very little of an insurance company's budget. Most of it goes towards the salaries/bonuses of the higher management and overhead working hard to deny you your claim. For profit businesses don't make profits by handing out money, they make profits by KEEPING money. Duh!

[Number 5]

I've done both plaintiff and insurance defense work. The reason this case went to trial is the insurance company for the kid refused to pay what the plaintiff's attorney thought it was worth. The company rolled the dice and won this time; plaintiff's lawyer lost $$$$.

[Jim O]

Think about it people. It shouldn't surpise you that uncle is suing nephew. Family members sue each other a lot, and then split the money. This is usually not planned, but once the accident happens, they agree to split settlement very quickly,.... you know keep it in the family.