(parent of) 2-year-old sues for lost wages

[cellio]

This story is just silly. I hope the judge slaps the mother with fines for a frivilous suit.

A 2-year-old cut his head at a playground; mom is suing for lost wages because the kid can't audition for modelling/acting jobs and the like. Even if that's true (and I'm not sure it is), c'mon. She blames the park because a railing was green rather than some bright color, ignoring the role of parental responsibility. And y'know, sometimes kids get banged up a bit while playing; it's part of being a kid. If she's that concerned, she shouldn't have let him play in the dangerous outdoors to begin with. Sheesh.

Since the parent has invoked a labor-based argument, I do hope that the full scrutiny of labor law is brought to this case... 2-year-olds should be allowed to have normal childhoods.

Comments

[siderea]

While I agree with you that it looks bad, I do not pre-judge cases on the basis of what CNN reports on them. CNN and the other mass media, are firmly in the pocket of interests which stand to benefit by convincing people to scorn punative-damages law suits against governments and corporations.

Quite a number of cases which sounded silly upon first reporting by the media, and which were used to ridicule the entire notion of civil court cases in the name of "personal responsibility" turned out to have great merit, e.g. the McDonald's Coffee suit, and, one of my all time favorite SCOTUS decisions, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education.

[cellio]

This is a good point. I wonder if another source will emerge for the story.

Unfortunately, for every such case that ends up having merit, there are probably several that really don't, like the "McDonalds made me fat" suit. Suing is low-risk, especially if you don't have anything that a countersuit can go after. So the natural inclination is to dismiss them all, but you're right that some end up having merit despite the media presentation.