In this circumstance should I sue the company?
I went to my works Christmas party at a fun fair. We’d had quite a bit to drink while playing ten pin bowling and crazy golf. (By this point I was not exactly drunk but yeh pretty mischievous and we hadnt been playing properly and I had been mucking around and climbing on the scenery.) We then went on the dodgems at which point someone drove into the back of my car and I broke my noes on the steering wheel. The man supervising the ride took me to the first aid area and stuck a plaster on it. I didn’t think much of it until the day after when it started to swell up. I then went to A and E and had to wait for 3 hours until they told me yes its broken and there’s nothing they can do about it until the swelling goes down. Should I attempt to sue them? Moralistically I think it would be a shame if they take the dodgems away just because I am kind of an idiot. On the other hand I can barely see out of my left eye and have had to take a week off work because I work in customer service and look like I have been in a car accident. Its cost me about £250 altogether assuming that when the swelling goes down I don’t have to go and get it re-set. What do you think?
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My view… no.
You accepted the risk of having a drink and getting into these dodgems.
Truly sorry to hear about your nose and I hope it heals soon. :-)
Yeh thats kinda what I am thinking but also I don’t think my having been drinking was what caused the accident. I mean had I been entirely sober there still wouldn’t have been seatbelts in the cart…Tho I think I might well just be trying to justify doing something stupid. Its hard to tell sometimes. If it had been someone else I think I would just tell them to suck it up and get on with it but its funny how your perspective changes when its yourself.
I don’t think you should sue in this case at all. Take responsibility for your own actions.
Who are you planning to sue? Your employer? Not a good idea! The facility where you hurt yourself? Why would you sue? Why not ask them in a letter to cover your expenses?
Also, your reaction times were slowed by the alcohol. Are you sure the crash was not your fault?
I really think that you should chalk this one up to experience.
You are giving a perfect example of why the world has become so limiting – sue happy lawyers working on commission.
Take responsibility for your own actions.
That said, what would you sue for the £250 you paid? That is reasonable . Maybe you could talk to them.
Here in the US some shyster lawyer would sue for 250 million : sue your office for holding the party, sue the company the made the Dodegems, and sue the company that owns the land.
The individual will get some settlement but the lawyers will take home a pile – all to right this “injustice”. Your company will go out of business, the Dodgem witll be removed and the landowner will put up a parking lot.
What a shame.
Take it as a lesson learned – be careful with alcohol, it can be deadly. That lesson, if taken, is worth £250 and a sore nose, believe me.
You can sue anyone for anything.
You don’t have a chance of winning. You were sloshed, you drove the dodgem. How are they liable for your stupidity?
Yeh I do think your right…I suppose my dilemma is not so much about doing what is right its more about my perspective in general. I mean I have worked like a dog and been nice to everyone my whole life, always done the right thing and well It doesn’t really seem to be getting me anywhere. And now I have the possibility of doing something that I don’t necessarily believe to be the right thing but that will benefit me for once and actually will only mildly inconvenience the one of the richest and worst employers in town. I mean I probably am not going do it because even if i win i will be ashamed of myself but I do wonder sometimes if doing the right thing is sometimes a bit stupid.
You don’t want to know what I think!
You can sue anyone for anything…doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. It’s like these people who are suing McDonald’s because the food makes you gain an unhealthy amount of weight.
There’s no honor in suing anyone. Most people do it strictly for the money.
@noodle_poodle
re ”And now I have the possibility of doing something that I don’t necessarily believe to be the right thing but that will benefit me”
I don’t think you should even consider that for a mere 250 pounds.
It’s not what you’d gain or what your employer would lose. It’s about what you would lose. Especially after you “have worked like a dog and been nice to everyone my whole life, always done the right thing”
@CaptainHarley yeh prolly not and when I see those personal injury adds on TV about how someone sued someone because they are too fat for their chair and it gave way I look at them and go “what an asshole” but increasingly I think yeh what an asshole but also an assehole with a lot of money. I never used to think money was particularly important and not what life was about but the older I get the more I realize thats why those assholes have all of it. And start to wonder if being and asshole might really be the way to go.
Sounds like you are just feeling sorry for yourself which is fair enough, we are all entitled to that from time to time. Plenty of us work hard and are decent people and we all often feel hard done by but that’s life. Like you said in one of your posts above “suck it up” and, like others have said, chalk it up to experience!
@whitenoise I understand what your saying there and maybe a few years ago I think I would have agreed with you in a flash, now tho I have to admit to a lot of doubt about weather loosing that “i will do the right thing” side of me might actually do me some good.
@LuckyGuy don’t forget that the liquor company and bartender would also be sued. The bartender may, in fact, have some culpability if he was serving to an obviously drunken patron, but he won’t have assets that can be gotten. The liquor company and the employer, on the other hand…
I agree that I would not sue. I would learn (and I have learned) to not drink past a certain point of “very light inebriation”, and I don’t operate machinery of any kind in that state.
So yeh choice isn’t it? Suck it up learn from it be a good person or try an sue them and be a duchebag with the possibility of recouping my losses. Honestly I do find that quite a difficult decision.
Your losses are insignificant (assuming your nose isn’t badly broken to the point of disfigurement, for example, and you only miss a few days of work), compared to the invaluable lesson you have the opportunity to learn here. Think of this as a tuition payment in the school of hard knocks. A pretty light payment, too. Some people have to lose limbs or kill innocent bystanders to learn this lesson. You aren’t paying so much for yours.
Own your own behavior. You were drinking, you were goofing around, you got a fairly minor injury. Not to sound harsh here, but it sounds like the entire event is your responsibility. It is not a “work related” injury by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t think you are even entitled to medical reimbursement.
What if you get sued by the person who was behind you when you caused the crash?
@noodle_poodle Out of interest, how old are you? You do know that the whole point of dodgems is to crash into each other right?! To be honest, if you decide to try and sue I reckon you’ll more than likely be laughed out of court.
You’re joking, right?
Let me get this straight, you were out on a drunken debouch and generally acting like an idiot. Then, after treating this company’s facility as your own personal jungle gym, someone rear ends you while you are on a ride that by nature involves crashing into one another, causing you to break your nose on the steering wheel?
Exactly how is this in any way the fault of the company you suggest you are considering suing?!?!?!?!?!?
If anyone (other than your intoxicated self) is at fault, it is the guy who rear ended you, not the company you want an excuse to sue. Besides, I suspect that there is probably a sign you neglected to read that says something like “Not responsible for accidents, ride at your own risk”.
Yo @YoBob
Yo’re a bit too harsh… I think (s)he was in a dodgem. That’s a bumper car, not a real car.
@yobob nope not joking seriously considering trying to get some money out of it
@YoBob… actually you might not have been too harsh, even though the detail of the car was wrong.
Yep, I saw that just after I hit “Answer” and have made the necessary correction.
@noodle_poodle – People like you are exactly the reason the whole concept of liability has spiraled out of control.
@CWOTUS Yeh thats true. I mean I have done some seriously stupid things in the name of having fun but I’d never get in a real car after drinking nor have I ever injured anyone else
@noodle_poodle You won’t get any money, you’ll get laughed at. Grow up.
@YoBob @Leanne1986 well that was the point of the debate and putting the question up If I am gonna do this best to know exactly what I am doing here and how I feel about it and how other people do. Not gonna pretend its not an asshole thing to do but realistically I dont have that black and white moral reaction any more.
This question reminds me of an episode of Judge Judy…so no.
@noodle_poodle
May I join @Leanne1986 in asking for your age?
Out of curiosity, since you refer so often to a long past in which you used to be “a better you” and having lost things over time.
27 yeh defiantly lost things over time 3 years ago I never would have even considered it 5 years ago I probably wouldn’t have been at the party in the first place. People change
@noodle_poodle In what grounds are you going to sue? What makes you think you have a case? People don’t just sue and get money. They have grounds for winning their lawsuit.
although I think probably a lot of what I lost was naivety. I dont think I have become a worse person…just a bit more realistic and a lot more honest with myself about who I am.
@noodle_poodle : Oh, dear, this whole “more honest about who I am” thing is just making you sound whiney and irresponsible. Is that who you want to be?
@noodle_poodle Mistaken you are, young Padawan. Tempted by the dark side, don’t be.
Well anyway I decided ages ago so I guess it doesnt really matter but It was important to find out what people think and it did help me clear up some thought on it
well no I mean who’d sign up for that but its definetly in my character ..especially today
anyways I guess I better go and get on with something. Thanks to all who commented I am glad I posted it.
My stepdaughter was rear ended the other night going to a class. It was raining and she said the woman behind her slid into her car at a redlight at a busy intersection. My first reaction was thank God there weren’t any injuries and thank God my granddaughter wasn’t with her. They exchanged names and numbers and got out of the road and went about their merry way. Honestly, my first reaction was I hope she went to the ER (which she didn’t) and I hope the other driver had good insurance and she can get a little something out of this to ease their financial burdens some. There was absolutely no damage to either vehicle. I came to my senses and realized how wrong that attitude is really. Anyway, I get you. But, you know what is right.
Unfortunately @marinelife, all too often people do sue just to get money. The reality is that it only costs a few hundred bucks to file a lawsuit and it costs whoever one is suing a substantial amount to defend themselves regardless of whether they win or loose. So, often times the target will just pay some settlement fee because it is cheaper than going to court. OTOH, companies are beginning to wise up to this scam and now, not only are they choosing not to pay settlement fees, they are counter suing for the time and effort it takes to defend themselves against frivolous lawsuits (and because they can afford to have a salaried team of lawyers on their staff they usually win).
(Yippy! Two different misspellings of definitely by the same person here. I will retrieve my list.)
I hope I wasn’t the only one that went back and checked all their posts to check that I hadn’t spelt definitely wrong?!
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