Legal Mumbo Jumbo - the world is getting crazier - US versus European Legal System
"Last week, an Associated Press story crossed my desk about a man in Washington, D.C. who is suing the South Korean immigrant owners of a small dry- cleaning company for $65 million. The issue? He claims the mom-and-pop business owners lost a pair of pants from a $1,000 suit. Even though the owners said they didn't lose the pants, they've made several offers to settle. First for $3,000 and, finally, for $12,000. Now, remember, the suit only cost $1,000 and the couple's lawyer says the plaintiff's pants are hanging in his office. No matter. The customer won't settle. According to the AP story, the bulk of the $65 million claim comes from the plaintiff's "strict interpretation of Washington consumer protection law, which imposes fines of $1,500 per violation, per day." He's counting 12 violations over 1,200 days and multiplied by three defendants.It's a travesty, and it goes beyond farce.
Alternative approaches to the US legal systems and the protections inherent to it exist in other countries, particularly France and Germany. In the US legal system the emphasis is on providing a fair trial, and in particular, protecting the rights of the individual being tried. As a result, the actual trial itself is more adversarial than in most European countries.In choosing which system is best it really comes down to what you think is more important, imprisoning a guilty man or making sure an innocent man is not imprisoned. In the US legal system the emphasis is on protecting the individual from state misconduct, the protections the US has in place do a good job of preventing this. The risk the US run with this system is that those protections will sometimes protect the guilty as well.
In the European system the system is designed to punish the guilty first and foremost. This does mean that there may be some individuals who are wrongfully convicted but, as a whole, the guilty are punished and the state is preserved.
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