How evil can a corporation be

[fritz]

Even though non reef related, I do believe that to be the most intelligent post I've read here on MR.

Thanks Matt.

 

[Davidl919]

Yes she is complaining, she made a bad deal when settling her lawsuit and now she wants someone else to pay for it. The insurance company didn't settle this case for $700K because they thought they would win at trial, they settled for that amount because they new they would loose and that they would loose big. I will say it again, she screwed up - not Walmart- and she screwed up big. Now because Walmart has a negative image in the public consciousness, she attempting to leverage that in an attempt to shift responsibility from herself to others, who have done absolutely nothing wrong as it pertains to this matter.

She is disabled with permanent brain damage and you state she is complaining. WOW

&$ck them both. The lawyers and Walmart.

The lawyers for not looking at all angles including the clause in the womans walmart insurance policy and walmart for not overlooking the case because we all know well that it would not have set a legal precedent by them letting this one go. If they decided to let this one go but decided to pursue a case against Billy bob sanchez for the same reasons, Billies lawyers can't say why us and not her because it is a matter of the companies discretion of who they choose to take to court on this matter. It is in their policy and they can choose who and when to exercise it.

 

[aaron23]

wow wat an insane issue....
Being firm and holding everything else constant:
Contracts are contracts, you sign them and are liable for whatever it is you put your name down for.

Ethical issues are also at play here..

Walmart is in total right to reclaim the costs of her medical bills in all legal right. But considering their situation the corporation should want to take care of its employees and not ditch them on the side of the curb. I disagree with their actions but they are in all right to do what they are doing.

Life sucks , rules are placed are here for a reason..

David I would not believe it is the lawyers responsibility to look at walmarts insurance policy.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Since Google(that may also implies CL), nor asking me, is a good choice for looking for good lawyers, where should we look? Is there something like consumer reports of attorneys or attorneys rating much like our reefers rating in some sort of attorney super market?

BTW, I rarely hear the Bar Association or any legal entity do much about lawyer mal-practice. How would we go about this? If the first attorney mal-practice, how we ensure the second attorney suing the first one is not going to mal-practice? Just some silly thoughts.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Arron23,

But I think the reimbursement is a quite standard practice in this type of insurance policy and that the insurance attorneys would/should be quick to remind the other party during negotiation unless they are playing "you so dump game." There are of course some better negotiators and some not so smart ones. But if this kind of reimbursement is a common practice, I think the lady's attorney is either negligent or plain heartless. When I sell a fish, sometimes(not every time) I asked, "You know this is an expert care required fish?"

I once entered an insurance policy when I was 18 in college thru student union. This policy worded so carefully to sound like there is no limit to what the illness you have, it will cover you. It turns out that it means there is no limit to how many different illness you have, but each illness you can receive only $200 coverage. That is you can have 20 different illness at the same time but each one is covered for $200. Clearly almost any illness you got, you would have to pay in addition to the coverage because a normal doctor visit uses up the coverage already. This type of policy is more a scam to me by preying on our ignorance. Most employees, would not hire an attorney to read their employment contract and I wonder if the human resources of the employer would read you the contract or highlight some points for you to take note. I think that's the reason behind some labor laws regulating certain labor should know info be posted in work place permanently and easy to read locations. This incident is disturbing due to the emotional content but more disturbing is that this case shows there are way too many loop holes in medical care protection system and how some parties, usually the more informed, can easily exploit it.

 

[meschaefer]

Since Google(that may also implies CL), nor asking me, is a good choice for looking for good lawyers, where should we look? Is there something like consumer reports of attorneys or attorneys rating much like our reefers rating in some sort of attorney super market?

BTW, I rarely hear the Bar Association or any legal entity do much about lawyer mal-practice. How would we go about this? If the first attorney mal-practice, how we ensure the second attorney suing the first one is not going to mal-practice? Just some silly thoughts.

There is a service called Martindale Hubbel, which rates attorneys and firms. The highest rating being "AV".

Local bar associations will also give out referrals.

 

[jhale]

I think in the bigger picture this case serves to demonstrate just how F'ed up our healthcare system is. NO one should have to go through this.
The insurance companies should be put out of business as far as health care goes.
Healthcare should be free to everyone, if other countries can do it wth happened to us?
(thats a rhetorical question)

I just got a $75 bill for seeing a doctor for 5 minutes who told me, oh you just have the bug that's going around :irked:

 

[Killerdrgn]

Military spending is why we don't have universal health care, And if not then because we don't want to pony up the additional money to pay for universal healthcare

 

[lfsmarineguy]

David, all it takes is a single case to set a precedent, either for better or worse. The list of precedent setting cases is long and if some of the names were said I guarantee you would recognize a bunch of them. The fact is that any business regardless of size cannot afford to allow one of their contracts to go unenforced. It sets a precedent that can be exploited. There are ways of handling it so both sides win even though it may appear otherwise. Nobody in this thread has disagreed that this is a horrible situation and ethically, these people should be helped. But the facts remain, contracts were signed and ignorance of their contents does not make them voidable. Also, universal health care goes far beyond military spending or not wanting to pony up the money. It's not nearly that simple.

 

[jejton]

meschaefer put it well. As I always tell people, there are Attorneys and then there are Attorneys.

There's a great quote a friend of mine once relayed to me:
"What do you call someone who graduates LAST, the very BOTTOM of their class in medical school?"



Doctor!

Only if they pass their Boards, and then only if they complete a residency and there's more if you really really want to know but it kind of depresses me to think about it.:givebeer:

 

[jejton]

Your right, this will never go to trial. It will be settled out of court long before they reach that point. I would wager that they end up settling for about $150-200K. The point I would make is that her attorneys should have taken care of this before hand, and recovered that from the trucking company. Now it will have to come out of her pocket.

Any chance she could sue her lawyers?

 

[jejton]

Yes she is complaining, she made a bad deal when settling her lawsuit and now she wants someone else to pay for it. The insurance company didn't settle this case for $700K because they thought they would win at trial, they settled for that amount because they new they would loose and that they would loose big. I will say it again, she screwed up - not Walmart- and she screwed up big. Now because Walmart has a negative image in the public consciousness, she attempting to leverage that in an attempt to shift responsibility from herself to others, who have done absolutely nothing wrong as it pertains to this matter.

Without actually knowing the extent of her brain damage, intilligence or educational level, I would wager that it is her lawyers who are pushing this. I would also wager that she didnt read through all her paperwork when signing it and if she did, she didn't understand much of it. I am a fairly educated guy, who worked as an adminsitrative manager for a decent sized company before going back to med school, and I still have trouble understanding many things in contracts, policies, etc. that I have to go through. I am lucky in that I have all the above mentioned qualities and also have people to whom I can turn to, who are more experienced than I in these matters, and whom can offer free advice. Most people working at Wal-mart and the like do not have those luxuries and they are the ones that get screwed the most in the end.

I agree that Walmart cannot be blamed, but I wouldn't put the blame at her feet either. I put it at her lawyer's for not properly representing theirr client.

 

[jejton]

If they decided to let this one go but decided to pursue a case against Billy bob sanchez for the same reasons, Billies lawyers can't say why us and not her because it is a matter of the companies discretion of who they choose to take to court on this matter. It is in their policy and they can choose who and when to exercise it.

Not really because then Billy Bob Sanchez and his lawyers would get on the tv spot complaining how evil Wal-Mart is for not extending the same courtesy to him since he is a poor shlep with a missing arm now who can't support his family and we would be having this conversation all over again.

 

[jejton]

I think in the bigger picture this case serves to demonstrate just how F'ed up our healthcare system is. NO one should have to go through this.
The insurance companies should be put out of business as far as health care goes.
Healthcare should be free to everyone, if other countries can do it wth happened to us?
(thats a rhetorical question)

I just got a $75 bill for seeing a doctor for 5 minutes who told me, oh you just have the bug that's going around :irked:

If you really want to get into that can of worms, start another thread and put on your flame suit :sgrin:

 

[Killerdrgn]

Also, universal health care goes far beyond military spending or not wanting to pony up the money. It's not nearly that simple.

Actually yes it is, if it was totally costless and free, to all the parties, public, corporations, AND the government. Don't you think it would have been implemented yet? But it always comes back to the cost issue, are we willing to pay the cost of everyone having health care without having diminished services? Sadly no, the political will is not there. And since the Iraq war is funded by debt, no we cannot use that money to spend on healthcare.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Ok so who's gonna lead the collection?

 

[mstrofdisaster]

Ok so who's gonna lead the collection?

It already is being collected, just look at your next pay stub under the heading: Federal & State Taxes:shhh:

 

[jhale]

If you really want to get into that can of worms, start another thread and put on your flame suit :sgrin:

Health care should not be something that has to be argued over.

If so many other countries can provide it, and make it look simple while we can't, something is very wrong with our system.

But I agree it's beyond the scope of this thread.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Killer, I don't know where you are getting your information from but it is really not that simple. To keep insisting that the reason we don't have universal healthcare revolves only around the money aspect is absurd.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

The topic is Walmart and the woman's issues. Universal health care is not the topic. Please get back to the topic or the thread will be closed.

Thank you.