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Toshiba Settling Billion Dollar Lawsuit
male writes "A couple of ambulance chasers found out that Toshiba ignored a minor bug in it's hardware ten years ago, and is now suing them over it. Now Toshiba could be out 2 billion (with a B) dollars! The guys who brought the suit get a couple thousand, and the lawyers get a over 100 million...
" You should read this article. It's pretty freaky.
The last thing the court wants is a mistrial or a hung jury, as that is time-consuming, expensive, and unpopular with the public. (Plus the waste of time for the jury members (which granted is only a few days normally).) And in most cases there is a desire by all parties to see a fair trial.
The purpose of the selection process is not to pick the "right" people for the case; it's to make sure the wrong people aren't selected. The questions asked by the attorneys are geared towards weeding out people who are biased ("Would the defendant's race influence your opinion as to his innocence?", have too much emotional involvement ("Have you, or anyone in your immediate family, been the victim of a robbery?"), or are otherwise mentally/emotionally unfit to serve. After these people are eliminated, twelve of the remaining candidates are randomly selected. These twelve people will usually be "average" citizens who are going to do their best to make the right decision. It's a weighty responsibility, to sit in judgment of someone's life, and most people do treat it with the proper respect and attention.
I am a firm believer in the functionality of trial by jury. Yes, it can be twisted or bent -- but it's a lot more fair to the defendant than anything else I've seen.
Jeez, read the article... the bug is sometimes the toshiba notebooks have errors writing to the floppy disk. Toshiba claims they haven't been able to reproduce the errors in the laboratory.
It's even worse when you think about how universally unreliable floppies are anyways. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone if their floppy disk suddenly doesn't work.
I would like to know one thing: If a hardware manufacturer can be hit this hard because of a rather minor bug in one of its hardware products that hasn't really caused any damage...
Then why can we not hit Microsoft, a software company, just as hard when their OS crashes and people lose data because of it? Damages caused by this one are quite well documented, and don't tell me Microsoft is ignorant of this fact.
It is because of Microsoft that the general public thinks that having to reboot an OS every week or every few weeks is OK. To me, the OS is more important than the floppy drive, as I can do without one but not the other. I run Linux, but at work I am forced to use Windows. It has crashed on me numerous times while I was in the middle of something. I save my work frequently, and it still has cost me a lot of time spent redoing work that should not have been lost. What about the company I work for? When I have to redo work like this, they lose money.
How many other companies out there are affected by this?
While I think this suit against Toshiba is a bit blown out of proportion, this is a great thing if it is any indication of big business in the IT industry actually being held liable for shoddy products.
I agree, lawsuits are necessary. What I do have a problem with is our (US) tort system. It is wildely expensive for both parties, even if one party is clearly in the right. It is very time consuming. Juries are technically incompetent (e.g.: law, medicine, science, business, etc), many times they're functionally illerate. And last, but not least, the awards are all too often far too high.
...I can go on.
I don't regard billion dollar awards against billion dollar companies to be anecdotal. It would be equivalent to calling TB and the bubonic plague an anecdote when talking about the dangers of diseases. Sure, they're both singular cases, but you have to look at the costs.
None the less, there are plenty of high dollar awards that I can name in the past 5 years. These are things that any business man is all too well aware of. Beyond Ford and GM, billion dollar awards in California, we have other more aggregious cases. For example, Dow Corning (not to mention other silicon producers) who was sued successfully for producing breast implants; they're no longer in business. In this case, it was never proven that they even leaked in the case. Futhermore, it has been proven repeatedly that such nominal leakage has no such effects on the human body. Yet, you have billion dollar awards against multiple companies, and hundreds of millions in legal fees (even today). I can tell you from personal experience, that these manufactuers that are still in business REFUSE to allow their silicon products to be used in implantable medical devices, even if they have no direct involvement in its usage. The result? Silicon, the superior and safer product, can't be used in such devices cost effectively. These are real costs, in many areas. There is also Cesna aircraft, now brankrupt, in an even more absurd case.....
I can also point to multiple cases against my parents', family's. and friends' companies. Cases in which, they've been told by their lawyers that it would be cheaper to settle than it would be to WIN. Cases in which the plantiff is clearly a fraud, who has been in and out of the courts on similar yet seperate cases, yet the courts refuse to allow this piece of information in the courtroom. Cases in which even the judge sent the award back to the jury, saying it wasn't high enough to warrant the time involved.
There is nothing anecdotal about this. They are huge costs of doing business. They discourage people and products from entering various markets. People lose their jobs. Frauds get recieve huge awards and settlements all the time. The costs are far too high, win or lose; they're not an effective means of settling disputes. Anyone who runs a sizable business, or really any organization, is painfully aware of this. There is A LOT of room for improvement, my ideas are some of them.
Toshiba might be partially at fault. However, the fact of the matter is of more than a million laptops shipped, not one complaint was filled. We have no evidence that anyone was actually hurt. Toshiba is an OEM, and this part was purchased. It could very well have been an innocent mistake. You don't have any evidence to the contrary. Many companies are placed in such situations for more absurd cases.
PS: If you wish read a good essay on tort reforms, try this: http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg19n1e.html
I couldn't disagree more. 2.1 billion is not chump change, even for a company of Compaq's size. Smaller firms are hit harder, but big business is hit hard all the time (eg: Ford, Cesna, GM, etc) -- they're running scared. In fact, settlements such as there are proof. The fact that they'd rather CERTAINLY shell out 2.1 billion, than go all the way and risk god knows how much to an uncertain jury. The fact of the matter is that, despite selling more than a million such machines, not one person has actually filed a complaint as a result of actual damages. No one has proven that Compaq acted with malice, disregard, etc.
Civil lawsuits are out of control in the US. They need to be curbed. I recognize that they have their place, but I see far many more abuses than legitimate cases (for reasonable dollar sum). Some cases just shouldn't have layman (non-technical, non-legal, etc) juries. But in lieu of that, they need to cap punitive damages, or simply demand that they go to charity instead. That would eliminate a great deal of these suits. Not only would we see fewer frauds being awarded the big bucks, but you would get secondary and tertiary effects. Namely, companies would be more willing to litigate these cases, rather than settling anything with the potential for high dollar awards -- serving to further cut back on fraudulent cases. It would create a more equitable system.
Hey, having trouble making ends meet? Follow Bob(TM)'s step by step guide:
Path to easy street
(1) Buy a piece of hardware from a big name company;
(2) Test thoroughly to find all bugs (what are the odds that a given piece of hardware has a bug? Better to consider the odds of NOT having a bug).
(3) Get a lawyer to bring a class action suit. Shouldn't have a problem finding these guys. Here are some possible sources:
* Billboards or TV ads
* Get a list of people who've bought scanners from Radio Shack. Should be pretty thick with 'em.
* Stop by your county court house - look for the guys with briefcases and pencil-line mustaches.
(4) Use the "what if I used my computer to control a nuclear medicine workstation" rationale for why the owe me big bucks. That gets 'em every time. You only need to show POTENTIAL harm, after all;
(5) (Optional) Get the list of "guests" from the Jerry Springer show to help you demonstrate harm caused by the product;
(6) Settle for bucks. Lawyers will get most. But, you know the real secret: VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME.
(7) Lather, rinse, repeat (go to step 1).
The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?