Today Larry takes on the issue of accountability and what some deem frivolous lawsuits – do today’s guests have a right to blame others for their misfortunes in life? Draw your own conclusions by reading more about the stories below:

After buying an Evanescence CD from Wal-Mart for their teen daughter, Trevin and Melanie say they were appalled to discover profane lyrics despite the lack of a warning label on the packaging. The situation was especially disturbing to their family because they shop at Wal-Mart based on its claim of selling only “clean” music. Despite complaining to the company, Trevin and Melanie felt they weren’t taken seriously and that a lawsuit was the only way to make their voices heard. The family is now suing Wal-Mart to ensure that warning labels will be placed on questionable music products in the future.

Does Patricia have a right to sue a train company after being struck by a train on the tracks? Patricia and her attorney Harry Smail think so. Patricia says she looked both ways before crossing the tracks but that the sound of the oncoming train was muffled until immediately before she was hit. She also maintains that the conductor did not sound bells or horns to warn her of the impending danger. In the lawsuit, Patricia and Harry allege that the train company is at fault for not placing warning signs in the surrounding areas. They hope to affect change through the lawsuit to make it safer for other citizens.

Julianne recently made headlines when she was fired from her job as a school bus driver for lecturing the children onboard about stem cell research. Despite the controversial nature of the issue, Julianne says she didn’t see anything wrong with engaging the children in a dialogue about it. She also says that she was never informed about existing policies that ban such behavior from school bus employees. Now she is locked in a battle with the school system – they say Julianne voluntarily quit her job, while Julianne maintains that she was fired because of the situation.

Recently, Rachel and her husband David suffered a tragic loss when David accidentally backed over their two-year-old daughter with their SUV. Rachel believes the death of her daughter could have been avoided if car manufacturers took more care to inform consumers of safety features such as censors and rear cameras. She and David are currently suing the vehicle manufacturer in hopes that similar tragedies can be averted for other families.

Experts Janette Fennell of Kids N Cars and Linda Okun of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse faced off on the issue. Janette asserted that manufacturers should pay more attention to safety needs for children by installing preventive features in all vehicles, while Linda believes that drivers should be responsible for determining their own safety needs to avoid unnecessary cost to consumers.


Quick Clicks

For more information on Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), visit:
www.cala.com

For more information about Kids N Cars, visit:
www.kidsncars.org