litigous society
Example:
An Ontario Superior Court judge found an Ontario employer partly responsible for the injuries sustained by one of his employees in a drunk driving accident.
The accident followed an office party where the employee was seen to be consuming alcohol and she became "tipsy".
The employer offerred:
a) to call her a cab;
b) to call her husband to drive her home.
He also overheard another employee offer to drive her home.
She refused and went to another bar after the staff party and continued to drink there. Then she drove home drunk. In a collision with a truck, she sustained brain damage and is unable to work. She sued her employer.
The judge found her employer guilty after dismissing the jury from the case mid way through the trial. The employer was fined more than $280,000.
The employer said: "The jury was made up of people like you and me. They had the common sense to know you don't go suing somebody because you drank too much... Why do they even have a drinking age? If people can't be held responsible for their own actions, then maybe the age should be raised to 100."
(based on Globe and Mail report, February 6, 2001, pp. A1, A9.)