[TrumpCard]

We have a justice system (of which I am a part), and we try our best to bring justice to the victims and perpetrators of wrongs.  In the business disputes I handle, we do a better job of approximating justice, though, still, we often don't get it right. 

In matters relating to injuries and deaths, it seems to me that the justice system is much worse at finding true justice, if there is such a thing in those cases.  I am not saying that our system is worse than the other options or that we would be better off with no available remedy or deterrent.  I am just saying that people like Ted Agu's family are not made "whole" by a payment of money.  They are left empty emotionally and they are enriched monetarily far more than they would have been absent the injury. 

Some proof that we really do have difficulty measuring the monetary value of injuries comes from two recent verdicts in the field of right to privacy / emotional distress.  Is it a coincidence that, within a period of two weeks, Hulk Hogan and Erin Andrews each received a verdict with emotional distress damages of precisely $55 million?  Those are two extremely different cases, though in both instances, the injury can be summed up as a loss of privacy.  We'll never know exactly how the juries reached their verdicts, but I suspect that the jury in the second case (Hogan) just picked the number from the first case (Andrews) because the second jury could not agree on any other way to evaluate the damages. 

The reality is, we don't have a way to evaluate the damages.  When my wife heard about the Andrews verdict, she said that she would have awarded more.  I asked how much, and she said she would have awarded whatever amount Andrews sought.  At least my wife was honest in admitting that it would be impossible for her to place a monetary value on the injury.  I just think she was wrong to think that Andrews (or anyone else) is any better equipped to set that amount. 

[TrumpCard]

We have a justice system (of which I am a part), and we try our best to bring justice to the victims and perpetrators of wrongs.  In the business disputes I handle, we do a better job of approximating justice, though, still, we often don't get it right. 

In matters relating to injuries and deaths, it seems to me that the justice system is much worse at finding true justice, if there is such a thing in those cases.  I am not saying that our system is worse than the other options or that we would be better off with no available remedy or deterrent.  I am just saying that people like Ted Agu's family are not made "whole" by a payment of money.  They are left empty emotionally and they are enriched monetarily far more than they would have been absent the injury. 

Some proof that we really do have difficulty measuring the monetary value of injuries comes from two recent verdicts in the field of right to privacy / emotional distress.  Is it a coincidence that, within a period of two weeks, Hulk Hogan and Erin Andrews each received a verdict with emotional distress damages of precisely $55 million?  Those are two extremely different cases, though in both instances, the injury can be summed up as a loss of privacy.  We'll never know exactly how the juries reached their verdicts, but I suspect that the jury in the second case (Hogan) just picked the number from the first case (Andrews) because the second jury could not agree on any other way to evaluate the damages. 

The reality is, we don't have a way to evaluate the damages.  When my wife heard about the Andrews verdict, she said that she would have awarded more.  I asked how much, and she said she would have awarded whatever amount Andrews sought.  At least my wife was honest in admitting that it would be impossible for her to place a monetary value on the injury.  I just think she was wrong to think that Andrews (or anyone else) is any better equipped to set that amount.