After Toshiba's settlement, Others Follow (Law)suit

Can Savas writes "After Toshiba's $2.1 Billion settlement of the lawsuit on the "probably" faulty floppy controller, others have filed lawsuits against Compaq, HP, Packard Bell/NEC and eMachines. I wonder where these lawsuits are heading but I guess some will strike it rich (having suffered nothing at all to boot). These lawsuits show how unsufficient the jury system is for cases like this where the jury is likely to be clueless. If any of these manufacturers end up settling or losing the suit, then there might be some real problems for the entire industry. "

Comments

The jury system is NOT at fault...

[wowbagger]

The problem is not the jury system per se. Yes, the jurors may be clueless about the subject, that is why the attourneys on both sides have to present the facts (as they see them) so that the jury can decide the case.

The problem is that most people today are incapable of

• Listening to facts
• Remembering the facts
• Following a chain of logic
• Going with the logical choice no matter what their personal feelings are

Instead, the jurors make a snap, emotional decision, then stick with it, regardless of the facts or reason. In a case like this, the jurors say "You've suffered (somehow), and so we're going to give you a large sum of money. After all, WE aren't paying for it, insurance is." Of course, insurance isn't paying it, we are (via higher costs, premiums, etc.) but all the jurors want it to get back to watching Wheel of Fortune.

Perhaps instead of the current means of jury selection (Show up on this date or else!), what we should do is more like /. moderation:

Congratulations! You've been awarded a chance to make the world a better place and serve on a jury. You may redeem the enclosed token for a chance to sit on a jury anytime within the next three months. If you don't want to take part in the American Legal system, just drop the token into any US Mail box.

This way:

1. People who don't want to be on a jury won't be. If you don't care, I don't want you there.
2. People like me, who would serve if possible but are too important to be yanked away from work with little warning could make arrangments. As it is now, if I got a jury notice, my employer would swear blind (truthfully) that my absense would cause great harm to the company, and the system would let me skip (not reschedule, skip).
3. Hopefully, this would change jury duty from a chore to a privilege (Remember Tom Sawyer? "Not everybody can paint a fence like this")

Of course, the system would still have to compel employers to allow employees to take jury duty time without using vacation time, but they do this for Reserve duty anyway.

Of course, we'd then need MetaJury duty (review these 10 cases and decide it they were unfair, fair, or no opinion...)