Has WalMart sunk to a new low?

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4261579]Couldn't believe this, but not surprising. Now they claim the occupants of Morgan's limo bus were at fault for their injuries, because they weren't buckled in properly, and, get this, the WalMart driver is pleading "not guilty". http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...ellow-passengers-werent-wearing-seatbelts-in/[/QUOTE]

If you get busted speeding (or anything else for that matter) and want to have your day in court, you plead "not guilty". Even the guy in Oklahoma who had just hacked off that woman's head and was shot while in the act of stabbing a second victim is going to plead "not guilty" as a way to set the wheels of justice in motion. Maybe he'll get offered a plea deal, or looking to have the charges reduced. Maybe the Walmart driver really doesn't feel as though he is guilty of the severe criminal charges brought against him, but that it was an accident that he never meant to cause. The "not guilty" plea isn't him saying "I didn't cause the wreck" but rather "I want my day in court" or "I don't agree with what I've been charged with".

As for the seat belt thing, that is Walmarts way of reducing the amount they will ultimately have to pay in a civil suit. They aren't saying that their driver didn't cause the wreck, or even that the people in the limo wouldn't have been hurt had they been strapped in...just that the extent of their injuries likely would not have been as severe had the individuals been wearing their seat belts. Even if that only reduces Walmart's liability from 100% to 99%, when you are talking probably hundreds of millions of dollars, every % of negligence you can push onto the other party is a pretty sizable chunk of change.

 

I expected them to settle out of court and let it be forever forgotten to history. Not many people have been consumed by this case after the first couple weeks of it happening. They'd be money/reputation ahead to have settled and kept it quiet.

 

With the information frenzy.. data seekers.. micro management .. and social media sites soaring along with everyone starving for the next tid bit Its probably to late..

 

The first step in any negotiation is to position yourself to get the best possible deal. Walmart wants to minimize the settlement, which can only be done by assigning a portion of the negligence to the plaintiffs. Walmart isn't saying they aren't responsible...just that the amount of the settlement should be a little less because the injuries might not have been as severe had the passengers in the limo had been wearing their seat belts. That was a negligent decision on THEIR part, and all the Walmart lawyers are saying is that Walmart should not have to pay for that small portion of the negligence.

 

Lets not forget the code of transparency ethic

 

So when a car slams into a semi truck and the car was driving recklessly, and his attorney sues the trucking company stating "well driver, according to your ECM data you were driving 66mph in a 65mph zone. If you were following the law you would have been driving 1mph slower and therefore, after driving 8 hrs, you should have been 8 miles down the road and therefore, you wouldn't have even been there for my client to hit in the first place. You are therefore 50% at fault for this accident". And believe me, stuff like this does happen. If walmart can establish contributory negligence on the limo's part that will reduce the pay out that they are required to pay. Just giving the ambulance chasers a taste of their own medicine.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4261579]Couldn't believe this, but not surprising. Now they claim the occupants of Morgan's limo bus were at fault for their injuries, because they weren't buckled in properly, and, get this, the WalMart driver is pleading "not guilty". http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...ellow-passengers-werent-wearing-seatbelts-in/[/QUOTE]


They (Morgan) are most certainly partly at fault if they were not restrained. That's a fact.
I don't hold it against Walmart for bringing it up either.

 

You don't have to agree. You aren't on the jury. If you are charged with murder in most states it is an automatic innocent claim through the courts even if you don't put it in. Wallyworld will use their slimy lawyers anyway they can to save some money, so will any other company including one I worked for. They brought in workers who did our work for a year and we files and won it, they appealed and won it back. I basically lost $100,000 in wages by losing that work. BTW/It was working on flight test aircraft.

 

You guys blaming Walmart for putting up a defense crack me up. I guess if it was your company you'd just say, "what the hell, we're guilty, give it to us good". LOL. I doubt it. It's the way court proceedings work. You come up with a defense to try and either get yourself off or at least lessen the blow. Wow, are you all new to the American legal system??!!??