Word: victimization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...having to pay for someone else's injuries in the event that a court finds him at fault. Once that happens, the driver's company must pay the judgment against him. And with its own money at stake, the company usually tries to beat down the victim's claims, however just. As damage awards mount, the industry compensates for its losses by raising everyone's premiums. But even when a company wins in court and does not have to pay a claim, it may still retaliate against its policyholder by canceling his insurance, a fate that...
Compounding this recipe for hostility between all parties is the difficulty of assessing the legal responsibility for auto accidents. In the six states* that have "comparative negligence" laws, a victim who is partly responsible for a crash can recover a proportionate percentage of his losses. In the other 44 states, unless the victim can prove that the policyholder was entirely at fault-and that he himself was utterly blameless-the company need not pay him a cent. Indeed, the worse the accident-a ten-car chain collision, for example-the more difficult it usually is to pin sole blame...
Almost inevitably, the fault system results in wildly erratic settlements. Insurance companies are notorious for overpaying small "nuisance" claims because it would cost more to fight them than to settle. At the same time, the seriously injured victim with high economic losses is often unable to wait for his case to come to trial and is forced to settle for whatever the company offers. If he does gamble on going to court, he may lose the case and get nothing. On the other hand, if he wins he may hit the jackpot...
...great is the cost of lawyers' fees and overhead that it takes an estimated $2.20 in premiums and taxes to get $1 to an accident victim. (Blue Cross delivers $1 in benefits for $1.07.) Nor is inefficiency the only drawback of the ponderous system. Although only 5% of auto cases ever reach trial, they still pre-empt about 65% of the nation's civil-court calendars. It now takes 2½ years to get a civil case tried in most cities...
...Problems in finding heart donors have been eased by the drama of the first transplant, with the appealing element that the humblest accident victim might, by the donation of his heart, confer the gift of life on another...