Reply #6: Look too other countries - in Germany

[German-Lefty]

We pay out way less, but you still have a right to sue. Actually in Germany if someone is killed by a company they pay out the what I call the slave value of the person ie. how much money that person would earn for his family for the rest of his life. I think a middle can be found. We have to ask ourselves some tough questions:
1) How much is a human life worth? How much should a company have to pay for causing a death?
2) How much is suffering worth? How would we measure it? It shouldn't be cheaper to kill someone than let them suffer.
3) What type of risks should one be able to disclaim? If a surgical procedure has a 50% chance of death, and the patient is ok with that, he shouldn't be able to sue after wards. On the flip side though you can't have every company disclaiming all responsibility for their products and services.

The problem as I have heard it in the states is that the courts you certain precedence cases to calculate really dumb values for settlements.

This is similar to sentencing guidelines.

And of course we have to watch out for big business.