The US has a stereotype as being a litigious society (lawsuits are very common). But I’m curious what people’s personal experience with this is.
I am an American, 40 years old, and have worked many jobs with many different people. I have never personally heard of someone suing or being sued. I live in the Midwest, so maybe this is something more common in coastal/large cities?
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Yeah – me! I know myself pretty well.
Oh yeah. There’s a lady that owns a barber shop down the street from me. She sues everyone.
My wife has had to do two different depositions related to lawsuits.
One had to do with an owner of a company being sued by the former owner.
The second had to do with a workplace accident and a customer suing the owner of said company.
These were two different companies my wife worked at, many years apart.
It’s more common than you seem to think. It’s not really something people talk about outside of their person lives, but it does happen… a lot.
I’ve been a teacher for thirteen years. I’ve been involved in two lawsuits for that.
Being sued isn’t that uncommon overall, what is less common is the extremely long intense drawn out court battles you might see on tv or hear about in real life occasionally. Many, possibly most lawsuits that are brought are dropped entirely or resolved through mediation or private negotiations.
I’ve been sued (and won), and I’ve been a witness in law suits (just gave a statement).
BTW Germany is actually the most litigious country per capita.
Used to own a business and one of my customers literally disappeared overnight. Their next door neighbor in the business park said it was the weirdest thing. The owner had died and his widow cleaned the place out and left all of their vendors in a lurch. She owed me about $4000 and I filed in small claims court. Unfortunately never saw a dime.
It does happen more often than you think, but most lawsuits that take place are pretty small scale and even then are more often settled outside of any court. Majority of Americans never deal with any lawsuits themselves in their lifetime, however.
I was sued once for having a cat make “too much noise.”
I think I only personally know people who have been involved in small lawsuits.
I know some people, including my mom, who have joined class action lawsuits against their employer for stealing their wages.
Also one time there was a class action lawsuit against milk producers for killing off cows to artificially limit supplies and everyone who bought milk during a certain time period got something like 5 dollars.
I know a handful of people who have sued the school district for not complying with an IEP for a student with learning disabilities and gotten awarded some money to get private tutoring. Usually these things are settled without a law suit though.
If there’s a car accident the insurance companies will sue each other to pay for the damage.
I knew a lady who “won the lottery” twice lol later on my mold told me she would try and get hurt at work and successfully sued a few companies.
Yes. My brother was sued after an auto accident (frivolous).
I was the one the process server gave the papers to.
Technically I was once. but really it was just my friends insurance company going after my insurance company which in turn went after the insurance company of the guy who rear ended me.
OP. Would you be surprised to know that despite your feelings on this the US is not even in the top three of most litigious countries?
Many years ago I was sued by my landlord at the time. He lost. Then I counter-sued and won.
I have sued other individuals on four occasions.
At this point, most people over 40 will have been involved in a class action of some sort. Doesn’t mean they were actively involved, just that they got a notice in the mail that they were a member of a class, and if they mailed in a response they’d get a $5 coupon as their piece of the settlement.
I sued a contractor in smalls claims court. She never showed up so it was a quick win for me! Getting paid, on the other hand… yeesh.
My mom has sued someone over an apartment issue (something to do with a sublease and rent not being paid, I don’t remember) and lemon law on a vehicle she purchased. She won both.
She also had to hire a lawyer to get disability, which is fucked up. She provided all the same info as her doctors the first time around but because they didn’t know the law codes to use, she was denied. You basically have to have a lawyer to get it, it seems.
My friend got sued in federal court by her former boss after she blew the whistle on him for fraud. He ended up having to drop the case and went to prison. She got saddled with a six figure legal debt, despite being the first person in the US to uncover a new type of fraud and changing the way the US polices internet assets. This all happened when she was only 24.
I believe my uncle is being sued but he deserves it soooo
Someone sued my mother after a car wreck once. She tried to sue for medical damages and pain and suffering because she had to get an amputation below the knee.
My mother won pretty easily. The other lady was at fault for the accident anyway. Plus the injury that resulted in the amputation wasn’t even technically from the accident. She got out of her car while it was still moving and it rolled over her lower leg.
The lady that sued ended having to pay my mother’s legal bills plus reimbursement for having to take off work and travel costs (the accident happened out of state while visiting family) to attend court.
I’m related by marriage to a woman who has made it her life’s goal to sue someone for enough money so she can live like a queen. She’s filed dozens of lawsuits from slipping in a supermarket to workplace harassment. She’s almost 60 and still looking for that big payday.
Yes. My mom was accused of misappropriation of funds and taking advantage of my adopted grandmother’s retirement funds. She won the lawsuit but it went on for 10 years and financially bankrupted her.
My dad was sued for breach of contract and settled.
My boss has been sued for unemployment a few times and won each time.
I took a customer to small claims court once for non payment…
I almost sued my former landlord over the security deposit, but decided it wasn’t worth it
Yes several
My parents were sued for a ridiculous amount of money (like, millions) by someone who hit a loose dog that belonged to a renter in a house they owned. The guy was on a scooter and was pretty badly injured (not life-threatening or even life-altering, but I think he did break a few bones). The lease didn’t allow dogs and the dog was not properly restrained/contained.
Nothing ever came of it. I know my parents had some meetings with lawyers, but it must have been thrown out or at least determined that they had no responsibility in the matter.
Back in my reporter days, I wrote a story about a guy in prison coming up for parole. He didn’t get parole.
Sued me for all his problems, past, present and future. Handwritten petition. Pretty funny. Newspaper’s law firm got it tossed.
I’m a lawyer, so yes.
In my personal capacity and considering only friends/family members as opposed to clients/adversaries, though… actually I’m not sure I have!
Sure. Nothing crazy, but I know of some auto accidents that ended in court cases.
Had a friend who got t-boned near her house. Broke her neck and leg. She sued when the insurance company didn’t want to pay. She won enough money to pay for her medical bills, lawyer fees, and pain & suffering which wasn’t a lot but helped her why she was out of work.
Side note: Recently, my daughter fell down the stairs at her university’s cafeteria. She was in a rush, had too much in her hands, and wasn’t being careful. It was a pretty bad tumble. She fractured a piece of her lumbar, but is otherwise okay. Insurance (provided by the school) covered everything after the deductible. And people have been telling her she should sue. I don’t know why people think that is the first thing you should do, but they do. I told her she didn’t have a very good case since it was all caught on camera, she wasn’t being careful, and didn’t use the safety measures that were in place (handrails or the elevator). It would be stupid to sue, especially when the school did everything right. They didn’t even fail her in a physical fitness class, even though she couldn’t do the “work” for the last month of school.
Here’s what I found from the European American Chamber of Commerce: Here is a list of the top 5 most litigious countries by capita: 1. Germany: 123.2/1,000 2. Sweden: 111.2/1,000 3. Israel: 96.8/1,000 4. Austria: 95.9/1,000 5. U.S.: 74.5/1,000. The Top 10 also includes the UK (64.4); Denmark (62.5); Hungary (52.4); Portugal (40.7); and France (40.3).
Well I had to sue my ex wife to get a divorce so there are two people for you. Basically anyone I know who’s owned a substantial business has been sued or sued a contractor over the course of their lives.
I Sued once and have been sued once. My 22 year was sued and so was my 21 year old daughter.
Yes, but not many, and only after attempts to settle a dispute out of court have failed.
Yep.
Went from never been involved to 2 simultaneous cases going at the same time. Won both including a nice settlement for both. Both cases were essentially us defending ourselves for breech. Of course we’ve gotten nothing from them. Only the lawyers made money.
I have never been involved in a lawsuit and no one I know well has ever told me that they were involved in a lawsuit. But some probably have and I didn’t know. I’m 32 living in the Midwest.
Most people don’t brag about being sued or suing someone.
A FORMER friend of my wife sued everyone for everything she could. When the day came and she sued for an actual LEGITIMATE medical malpractice practice case, the judge flat out told her base on her litigious history, he was tossing the case. Karma sucks.
My mom’s friend was shot by her boyfriend and killed. Her kids are suing him for wrongful death now, and the city also.
Knew a kid is HS who tried to stop a girl from drunk driving and she ran him over. He got pretty fucked up and sued them for $1m and won. Recovered fully with scars on his face, took his money and joined the army.
I was sued after a car accident, 364 days after the incident. She settled out of court for about 16% of what she originally sought. My insurance company handled the whole thing.
I sued a previous landlord for withholding my security deposit. Cost me less than $100 in filing fees and I filed everything without an attorney. I won the judgement of $3425, but it’s been a decade and I only ever received one $20 check from her. Winning was easy, but collecting was difficult and I gave up.
This country has a significant population of whiny little bitches that run to the courts for every little perceived slight. Just look at our current president.
My father was sued, over a piece of land. There was an obvious error in the legal description, putting my father’s building partially in the neighbors lot. Neighbor was fishing for a payoff. He lost.
I’ve gotten the occasional payout from a class action lawsuit. Just normal “American consumer” shit. I’ve known people who were fixing to set up a situation where they’re going to GET sued, but usually I dropped out of contact with them before they actually got sued (to my knowledge, anyway).
I was a witness in a domestic dispute, and on a separate unrelated case, my father was sued. I don’t know a lot about that as I was a child at the time, but they claimed he stole intellectual property or something. He lost and had to file bankruptcy.
People don’t go around talking about it, I bet if you asked around you’d find more people in your life that had been involved in lawsuits.
EDITED to add. I had totally forgotten that I got in a bike accident 30+ years ago and sued the responsible party (the guy who illegally parked and doored me)
I sued a former landlord when they didn’t return my deposit. I won, they paid me.
One of my former employers was sued by the landlord of the building the business was in. I got called to testify on behalf of my former employer.
Neither party was happy with the judge’s decision so it was probably a fair outcome. The lawsuit probably hurt the landlord’s reputation in town more than it hurt my former employer’s reputation.
Yes many. Most of them where bodily injury associated with motor vehicle accidents.
One friend sued a contractor for their shit work.
Someone tried to sue me, but got shot down before going to court, as they had no case.
Yes 4-5 times. On both sides.
The only time in my life that I’ve been threatened with a lawsuit was by a Canadian.
Yes, it’s more common than you’d imagine. My neighbors in a former house sued each other over a fence. My current neighbor was sued when his son got into a fight. I’ve been sued by an insurance company because they claimed that I got a double payment (I won the case)**.
**( My new sports car was rear-ended on the Turnpike. My insurance covered only a month of car rentals. My damaged car was taken to the insurance auto shop. They at first said they could fix it, but later decided to total it after two months. My insurance company told me to go the other driver’s insurance for coverage of the rental while they readied the reimbursemen check. I went to the other insurance company and they cut me a check for the $200 or so car rental fees. My insurance company cut me a check and took the car. About six months later they tell me to return the money because the other insurance company already paid me. They wanted $38k to be returned because the $200 check meant that was the end of their liability. Told them f-off. This went on for months and so I hired an attorney.)
My parents sued for vet bills after their dog got attacked by an unleashed dog. They won
Nope. It’s actually not common here at all.
My mom was in a car accident and got sued by the other guy. She had to go to a deposition, and I think it got dropped after that.
I’ve been involved in a couple class action lawsuits. It’s not as serious as it sounds. I just got something in the mail saying “Were you a customer of [business] from [time frame?] There was a [recall, change to a law, etc]” First I google the law firm that sent it to me to make sure it isn’t a scam, then I go to the website and enter my info. Once I got a check for $1500, so that was cool.
Yes, we are a very litigious society.
Source: I’ve been a legal assistant in the Midwest for over a decade.
I’ve been sued & have sued someone else.
The first was as part of a suit against my father’s estate, as an heir I was a named party to it. That seemed unnecessarily vindictive of my uncle, my father’s brother, since I was a minor at the time.
The second was me suing my husband for a divorce. It was not contentious, we both wanted out, but I started it because he turned out to be a lying, cheating ass.
I was part of a class action lawsuit once against a former employer
I got legitimately screwed but for very little money but I just had to sign a letter that came to my house and provide a little bit of personal information and if they won the lawsuit I basically had nothing to do with I would get money.
I dunno maybe almost a year later I got a check for around $650 and then 6-8 months later I got another one for around $100-$150 I think.
My parents got sued because my mom was in a small accident the day after their car insurance lapsed while she was on the way to make the payment to get it back “on.”
Seems like a rich man poor man thing. I am neither.
It happens frequently, though winning lawsuits is less frequent
Sure after the neighbors dog badly bit my oldest several times in just seconds and then they were giant AHs the legal action by my attorney felt completely accurate.
We were awarded summary judgement without any trouble.
Yes. I’ve been sued by a creditor so they could get a default judgment and write my debt off on their taxes. America isn’t the “most litigious” country. We just have a lot of corporate propaganda saying everything is “frivolous” lawsuits. The McDonald’s lady didn’t sue for millions, and she didn’t sue because she spilled coffee on her lap. She sued because the coffee she was served was hot enough to fuse her labia to herself and fuse her vagina partially closed, IIRC. She suffered 3rd degree burns to something like 30% of her body from a cup of coffee that should be served at like 130⁰-140⁰, not nearly 190⁰ like the coffee that location was serving. I was told growing up that that was a frivolous lawsuit that never needed to happen because someone was “dumb” enough to spill coffee. I’ve spilled coffee on myself. I’ve never gotten 3rd degree burns, even from a fresh pot.
My mom was sued for a traffic accident she caused. She didn’t see a stop sign due to a tree branch partially blocking it and went through it, hitting another car. The insurance company handled everything and they reached a settlement. The settlement amount was more than the car insurance coverage at the time, but my parents had an umbrella policy that paid what the car insurance didn’t.
Most people who sue after car accidents are suing the insurance company of the other person. Most people don’t have the means to hand over hundreds of thousands after accidents. For example my BFF was in an accident 2 years ago. It was her fault, but she only rear ended someone going about 5-10 mph at a stop light. The person is claiming alot of medical issues as a result. My friend is single, a teacher in a low-income district barely making $50k a year. They can try and she her but realistically she wouldn’t have the $$ to give her. So they are suing the insurance company for a pay out.
Yes, for well known, but undisclosed foundation deterioration on a home that I bought
I sued a car dealership, they settled. I sued the driver of a car that struck me as a pedestrian, he also settled just before we went to court. Seriously, if I had known that 45 years later I would still be suffering from the effects of that, I would have not settled so easily.
I did contact tracing for syphilis and HIV in the early 90s. Someone that I had to tell that had been exposed to syphilis tried to sue me, personally. They served me at work. What a crap lawyer he had. I forwarded it to the legal team, never heard anything again.
US here. Yes. Multiple people.
I’ve been sued, it’s not fun. Luckily both times were a wash because of “Good Samaritan laws” but still was a hassle.
I sued my old apartment management company when part of my ceiling collapsed on me. It had been leaking and falling apart for months and it was in an area right by my only entrance door so I could not avoid walking under it.
I had a tenant do significant damage to my property, so I took them to small claims court and won. He defaulted on paying the judgement.
Never been sued personally, although I did get a satire website I wrote for served a cease and desist for alleged libel once (they were apparently bluffing because we didn’t take the article down and they never actually filed on us).
I used to work for law firms and am currently a law student, I would say your odds of being involved in litigation vary a lot based on lifestyle and what industry you work in. Most large employers will at least have been involved in some sort of employment related litigation.
My mom sued her landlord in college for not keeping up to code and wrongfully keeping the deposit
No. The notion of “I’ll sue you“ is overwhelmingly reinforced by all the inane billboards and media that pimps the stereotype that filing lawsuits against people is a quick and easy cash grab.
-Raises hand-
Mother ran a video rental store.
She had to sue several people for failure to return VHS tapes and players.
Also had a not exactly tenant sue us for wrongful eviction from a property that we never agreed to allow them to occupy.
We counter sued for damages they caused using the pictures they posted to Facebook as before evidence and ones we took after they left when we had the power company disconnect service because they refused to pay the bill.
I sued a former friend (I stupidly loaned them a large sum of money and after several months and me asking many times, they hadn’t paid back a cent). I dropped the case because the person paid me in full before the court date, though.
I also have a coworker who has an ongoing lawsuit with their former employer over wrongful termination. A former manager at one of my old jobs successfully sued that employer over wrongful termination (different companies, same industry though).
I deal with it for a living. It has gotten exponentially worse over the past 25 years
I’m a lawyer, so…yes.
But also personally, yes. Not me (apart from some class actions), but various friends and relatives have been involved in cases springing from car accidents, employment claims, contract disputes, etc. And if you know someone who has been through a divorce, that’s technically a lawsuit, at least in the USA.
My in-laws just love suing everyone. I think part of it was because they had a small business and had to take clients or vendors to court sometimes. The other part is one of them won a big settlement in a work related accident years ago. So lawsuits are like their natural response to adversity.
My mom was. She had a great aunt and uncle who had a stroke and dementia, respectively. They had no children but did have some nieces and nephews who lived out of state. My mom petitioned the court to be their sole conservator and caretaker, and the petition was granted. They spent the last 4-5 years in assisted living and she would visit 1-2 times a week and we’d bring them things they needed and just did our best to keep them comfortable, really.
After they passed away, those nieces and nephews sued my mom because they were expecting inheritance. My aunt and uncle weren’t well off and whatever savings they had were spent on the assisted living. They tried to claim my mom didn’t actually put them in assisted living and had pocketed the money. Fortunately, my mom had a giant binder that documented every little expense and bank statement and contract and the nieces and nephews hadn’t seen their aunt and uncle in like 15 years. It got thrown out pretty quickly, but it was an unnecessary amount of extra stress on my mom right after she had laid two people she cared for to rest.
My coworker sued for back pay & a little extra for no lunch breaks after working for the company for almost 10 years. They had fired her after she spilled a huge tray of drinks and as they were falling down, she accidentally said “oh shit” under her breath. A customer heard and complained to corporate and they fired her. She won, and after that we were required to take our lunch breaks every day no matter what, on the dot of when they were due or face being written up/fired.
A good friend of mine sued his ex wife’s affair partner for Alienation of Affection (we live in one of the few states that allows that) and basically won the value of her portion of their home, so he got to keep it after the divorce.
Parent is a psychologist. She’s been sued a lot. Often by child abusers that lost rights
I struggle to understand why this is seen as a bad thing.
What is so wrong with a government providing a neutral venue to settle disputes between parties?
I’ve been involved in a couple of class action suits.
One of my good friends is a general liability adjuster. It’s enough to make me know people absolutely do get sued. Dog bites and things like that are pretty common law suits
My great grandfather passed when I was in the 2nd grade. He left his inheritance to both of his children but my great aunt tried to keep it all. We had to travel across the country to sue. My mom was a witness I guess so I had to skip school and do my homework in the courtroom.
Edit: a word
Yes, twice. I was injured at a ski area when I was 16, we got a lawyer, sued them for negligence and won, I think $4,000, it was a long time ago. I bought my first ($500) car with that money.
Much later we took a landlord who was refusing to return a security deposit small claims court. She was a nutcase, she came in disorganized and we were not, she had to give us our deposit and some minor restitution as well.
I would guess most people I know have been involved in some form of lawsuit. A good friend of mine was involved in a semi-high profile, long running NYC lawsuit with his brother
Many lawsuits exist in the US because the government agencies that are supposed to be enforcing laws have been neutered by our politicians. Basically, you make your claim with the government and they send you a letter saying, “Sorry, we’re grossly understaffed and must focus on larger issues. Here is your official permission from us to seek remedy through the courts.”
Then you’re on your own. Most people who have issues like this end up in small claims court where you must represent yourself because in most cases you won’t be award reimbursement for legal fees.
I’ve sued two former employers for not paying me correctly when we parted ways. In both instances, I filed a claim through the State’s Attorney General office, in Massachusetts. They sent me a letter in both cases giving me authorization to sue them because they don’t have the staff to pursue such small matters.
I did the same once in California, but the state actually handled the entire claim, and I received a notice of judgement and a check in the mail once they made their decision. My claim and statement were so thorough that they didn’t even need to contact me for more information during the investigation.
In my experience I’ve only sued former employers, and not an actual individual.
When two kids I went to high school with were in elementary or junior high together (I can’t remember which) one inadvertently hit the other in the eye with a golf club blinding him so the parent’s of the kid that got hit did sue the other parents and won. Not sure how much they got.
>I have never personally heard of someone suing or being sued.
You probably know people that have been sued, but it’s usually handled by their car/home insurance company or it’s something like child support or back rent. I doubt it’s anymore common in different regions.
I live in the USA and know 2 people who were sued by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, who were seeking information about their work
Our previous HOA threatened to sue us over some BS, but we ended up hiring a lawyer ourselves to settle the matter before an actual lawsuit.
Other than that, just joining class actions.
For the most part, with people that I know, it’s usually some small claims court stuff, if anything.
I had to get a lawyer for a settlement after an accident. I was a pedestrian struck by a car at a crosswalk where I had right of way. The dude was quite elderly and probably should not have been driving at night. With a lawyer involved, I didn’t have to deal with the insurance company myself (I also lucked out bc my parents’ neighbor was a personal injury lawyer, so it was pro bono). Settlement +insurance paying medical bills let me put a down payment on a house.
In Germany it’s very common.
I do! We are in an employee at will state (which means less than you’d think) after 2008 and the economic downturn we had to lay off a multitude of employees (from 35 down to 10) to try to keep the business going. When things picked up, we hired some, not all, back. Because of that, there was one employee who sued us for “age discrimination” I couldn’t tell you his age unless I dug into our employee files from back then, and it was a ridiculous claim because he was not old. There was no malicious intent on our part, we hired back in order of release. He received a settlement from our insurance company because we couldn’t prove otherwise. My initial meeting with our attorney said that he most likely went to a lawyer that went down a list of possibilities with him until he reached something plausible that they could argue. I wanted to fight it because it absolutely was not true, he told me that this was the cost of doing business. Absolutely infuriating.
I filed a civil lawsuit against an ex friend. I won, and the judge told me I could actually file criminal charges. But I just wanted to let it go. She will never pay, but she now has a judgment on her record.
Several people. A friend was sued my his neighbor over a shared driveway. And another friend was sued by a former employer over a non compete agreement. I was served a subpoena 2 times at work over projects that went bad but never went to court. My corporate lawyers got rid of it.
TLDR version. Parents sued stepmom of my cousin for stealing something like $16k (my mom’s sister died- both kids received SS benefits for 10 years-money was invested by kid’s dad in two accounts with kid/dad/stepmom as signees). Parents won the case and got a lean on nasty stepmoms house- never got a dime. Lawsuit cost $$$ and dragged on for over a year.
The small business I work for is routinely pulled into lawsuits because we were involved with a project where, at some point, there was an accident with bodily injury. The lawyers will sue everyone ever involved because the business’ insurance company knows it is cheaper to pay out a settlement than it is to pay a lawyer to fight it, even when there is bulletproof evidence most the of people being sued are in no way at fault. Then the insurance premiums go up because they paid out.
We are currently going through one and there is a huge chance we will be deemed uninsurable after (because they chose to pay out over fighting it) which will put us out of business, even though we were in no way responsible for what happened. Over 25 years in business and over a dozen people out of jobs because of some slimy lawyer. Everything the owners worked for for 25 years, down the drain.
Yes, parents, aunt, also had a friend sue over inheritance money. I personally haven’t, though I could have over a car accident, didn’t feel it was worth the hassle
Yes – my mother and I have separately sued people and my aunt has been sued.
yes and it is ridiculous. Seems the crap that gets sued for is nonsense while real scammer get away with everything
I’ve known people who have to go to small claims or housing court and have almost had to myself (but was ultimately able to resolve it before hand).
It’s not so much the US is particuarly litigious as it is the reality that its not all that uncommon (anywhere, not just here) to run into people who try to take advantage of you. If your landlord refuses to fix a water leak and it causes your ceiling to collapse and now you’re stuck paying for a hotel, or you hire a contractor, pay them, and they never show to do the work, or if you are a contractor, do the work to standard, and then the client refuses to pay, the courts are the avenue where you deal with that
My former sister-in-law makes a living suing people for stupid things.
31 year old American. I have known one person being sued and two people suing someone else. They were all about car accidents. I have not known people either way for other lawsuits.
Pretty sure the Germans beat us out on being litigious
My ex’s dad (a mortician) was sued for something work related but this was many years ago and i don’t remember the specifics.
Of course I know him, he’s me.
Got sued. Had to settle because it looked like even if we had a favorable outcome in court, the legal fees from my lawyer would probably be in the ballpark of what we ended up paying. It sucked.
Unfortunately, plaintiffs have a big advantage with how the system works. There are a lot of lawyers that work on contingencies so the person doing the suing has very little expense if the lawsuit if unsuccessful. When you are a defendant, it can be difficult to even find a lawyer and they’ll usually want a fair bit of money up front. If the case goes to court it’s easily going to cost over $50,000.
I was sued by Bank of America.
Yes, a few.
The first time was when I was a little kid and we were all looking at a rainbow out the car window and my mother rear-ended the car in front of us.
We were at fault, of course, but the man who was driving attempted to sue my mother over this minor fender-bender for the next five years.
Until her side’s lawyer embarrassed him in court by pulling out not only multiple examples of him living his life normally and unimpeded by injury, but also him being on Workmen’s Comp for the same back injury years before the accident. He showed up in court in a neck brace that he was not wearing in their pictures of his daily life.
Luckily her insurance company was involved and they had good lawyers.
I’ve only known 2 people to have initiated lawsuits, both of them were going after contractors who did shoddy work on their homes.
Yes, it have a friend who was sued over some worthless crap that was left to him in his father’s estate.
It dragged on forever, they eventually lost, spent way more money than the crap was worth and in the end he told them to come get the stuff or he would give it to goodwill.
I’ve been sued many times. Sometimes it’s just an intimidation tactic. I don’t back down and know the law and my way around a courtroom so it doesn’t work out for them.
No
After my mother died and left her entire estate to me, my father sued me for her estate. Lost 300k that way but won, if you can count no longer having a relationship with my father a win
I sued once and won. I have never been sued.
Yes my grandparents were sued and won the case.
Someone cut in front of me and braked hard. The next lane was empty so I moved over, but just barely brushed her car. (I didn’t even realize there was contact.) She sued me claiming about $5,000 damage to her car and needing $60,000 for surgery. My insurance offered to settle for $80,000 or so and she refused, demanding to go to court. She finally backed down and accepted a $90,000 settlement when the court clerk said because of Covid they weren’t even putting these type of cases on the docket and there was no telling when it would happen.
Most likely she already needed that surgery and the ambulance chaser lawyer who she worked for told her to do that.
No, I don’t, but also I’m 21
Yea i was in a bad auto accident (not my fault), between insurances and workers comp, I had to get a lawyer and while it didn’t go to court I do believe it still counts as a lawsuit
Yep. And he advised me that it costs money to sue.
I work in loss prevention. We are the guys who are employed by companies to arrest shoplifters. I’ve known a few people who have been sued by criminals who were mad that they got arrested. Typically they try and claim that since we are privately employed, we’re not able to arrest them. The suits never went anywhere and always got dismissed within the first couple minutes of being in court.
I know multiple people who have sued or been sued.
Yes. A friend’s kid injured a kid in a fight. The injured kid was trespassing on their property. He is a bully and was the aggressor in the fight. It was self defense and the injuries were minor. But, because the family has money, the injured kid’s family won a settlement.
It wasn’t a fair judgement. The little shit’s family should have had to pay because their son has a long history of bullying. He trespassed on someone else’s property and started a fight. It emboldened him to act like a bigger asshole than he did before.
But, ultimately, my friend’s kid got a bit of retribution. He is very successful and makes a lot of money. The bully can’t keep a job very long because of his smart mouth.
I was sued in small claims court and won. It most certainly happens.
My father sued my former sister in law, so that’s fun. Also, I know 2 people who have been sued over car accidents. I think a lot of suits are against companies or peele having to sure insurance to force legitimate payouts
My parents have filed possibly the most fucked up American lawsuit. My sister was born premature at 28 weeks in the early 90s, apparently the hospital didn’t give her a huge possibility of survival, but against all odds was stable and doing well. The bill for the NICU racked up over a million dollars and somehow that bankrupted the insurance my parents had. So the hospital sensing that they weren’t going to get paid told my parents they were ending care and taking my sister off life support.
This is obviously not allowed. My parents quickly sued and won – not for money but to just keep my sister on life support. My sister is alive today, in good health, and has no disability related to being born so premature thanks to that lawsuit.
There are other instances where I think my parents should have sued l. Notably, a cable company’s equipment malfunctioned, shorted, and started a fire that caused over $5k in damages to their backyard. But apparently my parents don’t sue unless it’s life or death.
When I was a kid this guy pulled a gun on my dad and my dad sued him. I don’t recall the specifics cause it was like 45 years ago but he won.
He never really talked about it much. Just that the guy did it in a parking garage and the cops didn’t do anything. my dad was mad enough about it to drag him through civil court to make face some kind of consequence, even if it was just a fine.
Yes. My grandma sued Round Up after she developed lymphoma. She did receive a payout from them in a huge settlement that involved thousands of other people. I don’t know how much she won, but she bought all of our Christmas gifts that year with the money (5 kids and 12 grandkids).
Once many years ago for completely a understandable reason, we settled out of court.
My cousin had to sue Northwestern Hospital in Chicago because he was getting a routine surgery and the anesthesiologist fucked up and he ended up in a coma for 3 months. They tried to bill him for $2 million. He sued them and he won and they erased his bill and all previous bills.
My coworker also had to sue the hospital where she had her baby and then he died. The doctors fucked up. She won the lawsuit.
Our neighbor sued us three times. Each lawsuit was a variation of the 1st. Her lawsuit alleged that we were renting a room in our house to her Internet arch nemesis, who was using our house as a base of operations to pump poison gas through the sewer lines into the neighbor’s house. She even included photos of her air purifier’s “pollution level” display as proof. She also alleged had security footage of her property on a foggy day and included that as evidence of us spraying poison on her house. She would also call the police often and report that people were knocking on her door and running into my house, so the police would come bang on our door at 1:00 am demanding to search the place. They eventually figured out she was crazy and that stopped, at least.
I also got sued about 20 years ago when I got really fed up with a spammer who was flooding my inbox with ads for viagra and cialis. I went to their web site and was very happy to discover it was SSL-enabled. Back in those days your site could only have SSL by paying for a certificate from one of a few certificate authorities, and your SSL certificate had your company’s name on it. So I used that information to track that fucker down and published that info online. He sued me for it and even had the audacity to boast in a spam industry magazine that he was going to “bury” me. Luckily, I knew a guy who worked as an attorney at a very prominent law firm that specialized in intellectual property and internet law. As soon as the spammer got a letter from that law firm they dropped the suit.
When I was a child my parents got sued because my older sister had TP’d someone’s house and they claimed they slipped on the toilet paper and hurt their back, which of course meant they couldn’t work anymore. Luckily for my parents this person was known for filing lawsuits against anybody and everybody they could, always claiming grievous disability. It was apparently pretty easy to have dismissed.
I had to sue a former employer when their paycheck bounced.
Hundreds, although it helps that I used to work for a lawfirm.
My former stepfather sued his business partner, my mother, and my brother, their son, trying to push those two out of the family business.
He’d had multiple strokes, causing TBI, paranoia and dementia, and was being unduly influenced by some scumbag grifter he met at a bar and hired. He lost the lawsuit and had to settle with my mom in her countersuit, but in the meantime he wrote me and my brother out of his will, and made the grifter the executor of his estate and trustee of the trust for his 2 teenage children. He eventually found out the grifter was screwing him, fired him, had his lawyer draw up a new will, then died before he could sign it.
More lawsuits are likely going to have to happen to sort this out. The only ones benefitting will be the lawyers.
Yep, my dad got sued by my aunt because she’s an entitled greedy bitch. She got nothing and had to pay for his day of missed work which he had countersued for because the whole thing was a waste of time. My dad never saw a dime of that money, nor did he expect that he would, but truth be told he took a vacation day so it wasn’t like he really missed out on the money it was just the principle of it for him that you shouldn’t have done this and now you owe me because of it.
Edited because of grammar
I’ve been a party to three class action lawsuits. But that’s it.
I wasn’t sued personally, but my then-stepdad’s auto insurance company was, and I was involved. I was in my early 20s (in college), and got into a minor fender-bender in an old Lincoln that was in use in our household. Nobody hurt, pretty minor thing in general.
About a year later, we received a letter about a lawsuit pertaining to it, and I was asked to appear at a law office about an hour away, so I did. The other person involved was claiming that she had sustained injuries that had essentially destroyed her life, citing all kinds of apparent disabilities and decreased quality of life.
The attorney that the insurance company had appointed came through and absolutely tore her case to shreds. There were very recent photos all over Facebook of the plaintiff carrying her kids on her shoulders at Disney World, hiking, and doing all sorts of physical activities that she had deemed impossible, given her physical condition.
I think she received a small payout for damage to her vehicle, and was otherwise told to piss off.
Of course
I sued an old roommate in small claims years ago for stiffing me on rent and utilities. I won and never expected to get paid, but 3 years later, I got a check and an apology. We’re friends again.
back in the 80s, my parents sued a golf course for damages to their car resulting from balls hitting it. cant remember all the details but they won, it was just small claims court. pretty sure they had a second, seperate case they brought, but cant recall the circumstances.
have a friend who was injured as a baby in a car accident and got a decent payout from the other driver in a civil suit that got access to once she turned 18
Yes. This is part of the process for resolving accidents, so often it’s an insurance company suing on your behalf. But I was in a non-auto accident when I was a child and ended up with enough money from the lawsuit to pay for a year of college, which meant a lot less student loan burden for me.
Most lawsuits are like that; they’re not personal vendettas like you see on TV. I don’t know about now with the hollowing out of national institutions, but sometimes the government will even sue on your behalf – for example, in cases of employment discrimination.