A couple of months ago, I had an unfortunate (and very minor) car accident on Jensen Beach Blvd. An elderly lady pulled out from a side street and - apparently never seeing me at all - ran right into me, crossing her lane to do so. The damage to my jeep was minimal (several hundred dollars to replace my rear bumper and right rear plastic fender) and the damage to me was nil. Her car fared much worse however, sustaining a pretty decent amount of front end damage. Doing what the law (and our insurance companies) requires, we called the police and waited for them to fill out an accident report. At the scene, while talking with the lady, I genuinely felt sorry for her. It was - in every sense of the word - an accident. And, it was her first one ever. She admitted full culpability and her insurance paid all my damages without a problem. Thankfully, she did not get a ticket for the incident. I considered it done - over - finis. In fact, I had nearly forgotten about it until this week when I received a very "official" looking letter (and a copy of the accident report) from the law offices of Schwartz, Sweben, and Slingbaum telling me they would be "glad to discuss my potential claim at any time". They assured me that choosing them might mean "the difference between a substantial award and a meager settlement".
As I read that, I could not help but think THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA! (Obviously it's not all that's wrong, or even in the top ten probably, but it is wrong, nonetheless). We have become a society that sees every mishap, accident, and unfortunate event as an opportunity to profit off of another. We sue - or threaten to sue - for accidents that, years ago, would have simply and easily been worked out between neighbors. And Lord knows how greed changes ju ...