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Originally Posted by raeanna74
Why do they have to pull this shit? Sure, go head, lets put more pain and trouble on our peace keepers. Next thing we know we'll be calling the criminals, heros and peace keepers. How about we just go back to having mob bosses keeping the order around town and milking every last hard working Joe of his money? Might as well if we're gonna try to milk those that we want to watch out for us. Ain't that bitin the hand that feeds you? You'd think people would know better. This sucks.
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OK, the individual cops aren't paying a dime of this judgement, regardless. They were acting in their official capacity as policemen and should be enjoying the full protection of their department and its insurance.
Who is collecting the $1,500,000? The pursuee? No, it's the innocent guys that he hit. The criminal is not profiting here. The court is making sure that the innocent people injured in this chase aren't going to be destitute because of the accident. Here are the injuries - broken pelvis, broken face burns over 1/3 of the body. Severe lung damage and 3rd degree burns over 2/3 of the body. Not exactly pleasant.
All the court has done is believe the pursuee when he said that he thought he was being chased. The cops had terminated the chase 20-30 seconds earlier, but he didn't know that. For arguement's sake, if the chase had still been on, this thread wouldn't exist because the City would have just paid up. As it is, you've got two INNOCENT people who just happened to be in the wrong place who are horribly injured. All this decision does is make them financially whole.
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Originally Posted by fistf
Which of course means that the city's taxpayers pay for these injuries and are the real deep pockets here. As well as taxpayers in other cities when insurance companies raise rates.
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Given the circumstances, the taxpayers were going to be paying anyway once these guys declared bankruptcy and stuck them with the medical bills. Again, if the chase had still been on, the city would have paid anyway. The only difference is that 20-30 second time extension. Given the fact that the City has a good risk management department, they'll find a way to mitigate the premium (take a higher retention, buy lower limits, etc.). And in the current market conditions, the increase probably won't be that bad, unless there are other claims that are making this an unprofitable risk. In that case, this is just the straw that broke the camel's back, and the amount of increase probably won't be much more than $50,000 when the City is probably spending $2,000,000+ for insurance. I can tell you with no uncertainty that they could save that $50,000 immediately if they replaced the marble floors at the courthouse.