litigious or just underinsured

I came across this intersection a while ago when I was walking home.

Obviously, the city was doing some construction, resurfacing the street and generally improving the quality of the intersection. Great, except there didn't see to be anyway to get from one side to the other until I saw this.


That's right, you are supposed to walk across these rickety boards to get to the other side. I immediately thought, "Wow, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen," apparently revealing my American predisposition to litigation. I then saw a woman of a certain age try to cross these boards with few sacks of groceries in her hands. Predictably she fell. This got me to thinking: what is the nature of liability law in France?

A couple of days later I told some of my fellow students about this scene and asked about liability law. They responded that I was so American and that French people wouldn't think of suing for an injury resulting from something like this. Obviously dissatisfied with this response, I asked more and more French people about this. They all responded that they just never would think about suing because of an injury resulting from this negligence. Instead, they would just go to the hospital and get it take care of. The only time they would sue would be if someone died as a result of the negligence.

Then it hit me. My solution to tort reform in America and the cure for the "judicial hellhole" that is Madison County: universal healthcare.

Seriously, is it that crazy? Think about all of the time and money spent on litigation in America trying to recover the cost of medical care. Isn't that what these French people were telling me? What's the point of suing the government or anyone else for medical costs that the government is already going to cover?

If you didn't have to worry about my medical bills, losing money from not being able to work or losing my job(because of course your employer here has to keep paying you 100% of your wages until you return, depending on how long it takes you to return), you would have no great incentive to sue anyone. Honestly I wonder how many tort based lawsuits would never even be brought if no one worried about paying their medical bills or lost wages.