Do you want to know why there are so many nasty lawyer jokes. This article is probably one of the reasons why. Some overly litigious lawyer has decided that there is merit in a class-action suit against Apple over the iPod. The basis for the lawsuit is the possible hearing loss caused by the use of an iPod. I’ll quote the relevant paragraph from the article here:
The portable music players are “inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss,” according to the complaint, which seeks class action status. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks compensation for plaintiffs’ hearing loss and upgrades that will make the iPods safer.
This is one of the reasons I believe that the legal system in the United States is in dire need of reform. Frivolous lawsuits, like this one, come up all the time, and cost the companies sued thousands of dollars, and indirectly lead to increased costs for their products. If the courts in this country were more like those in Great Britain, where the loser is forced to pay the legal costs of the winner, most of these nuisance suits would disappear.
Suing Apple for the possible hearing loss caused by misuse of the iPod is like suing the automakers for drunk driving accidents. One could make the same argument, that cars are inherently defective in design and not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of drunk driving.
People need to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. Turning up the volume on an iPod is a personal choice….and if you do so constantly, you’d best be able to deal with the onset of hearing loss. Furthermore, many of these “victims” have probably listened to other audio devices at high volume, prior to and while owning an iPod. I seriously doubt that their hearing loss is solely the fault of the iPod.
I have several friends who are lawyers, and don’t waste the court’s time with cases like this one. The ones that do should be the ones at the bottom of the ocean.*
* Comes from an old lawyers joke. For those who don’t know it, I’ve posted it here.
Q: What do you call 10,000 lawyers on the bottom of the ocean.
A: A good start.
Turn Up the (Class Action) Volume…
It is a basic premise of tort law that a plaintiff, in order to win a judgment against a defendant, must prove damages — some form of measurable and compensable harm.
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