In my opinion, (Please deposit the exact amount of money that my opinion is worth to you in my bank
) people are much to "sue happy". If you watch television you see so many lawyers promising to take on lawsuits for no money down and get exorbitant amounts of money for their clients. You can sue anyone for anything whether or not you actually have a case. If I so choose I can sue any one of you. I might not win, but I can do it. You can also do the same to me. The difference in you and I and Disney is that they have insurance companies who will pay off a certain number of cases rather than go to court. Many people know and take advantage of this fact.
DH and I own and operate a small over the road trucking company. We pay an enormous (for our income) amount for liability insurance. All truckers do. If high fuel prices don't get us in the end it will be insurance prices that do. You would not believe the things people will do to try to cause an accident that they can sue for. Our drivers have been rear ended at stop lights by another driver and guess what, in spite of police reports saying we were not at fault, witnesses who said we were not at fault, we get sued. Also had a woman with small children, including a baby in a car seat pull up so close behind a truck at a fueling stop that she was invisible in his rear view mirrors. She had no reason to be there, these were diesel pumps at a truck stop on the side for big rigs - she was in a gas fueled car on the wrong side. Thank goodness another trucker shouted a warning to our driver in time to stop him before he did any more than crack the plastic license plate holder on her car. Police were called, she claimed no injuries. Our drivers all carry disposable cameras so he took pictures and also got the names of multiple witnesses and a police report was made. Guess who wanted to sue for grievous injuries and damage to their car the next morning after calling a TV lawyer? You got it! Had another driver who was driving along on a rural highway when a car came off a side road and hit him in his rear wheels straight from the side. These incidents have been over a period of years and were all ruled not our fault BUT, they go on your insurance record and also every accident that is reported goes in your Dept, of Transportation Safety Stat record and will earn you a safety audit which is about as much fun as ten root canals. For the Safety Stat it does NOT matter whose fault the accident was, your stats will be worse. So the next time you hear about a trucking company with "multiple safety violations" , remember this.
Our drivers are good. We attempt to be as safe as we possibly can be. We have children and grandchildren and parents on the road too and we want nothing more than their safety. We have also had our insurance payoff schemers who did not deserve anything. It makes my DH furious when this happens. He tries to get the insurance not to do this but they have told his and this is a direct quote, "All someone has to do is file a suite and a judge will give them a payoff simply because a big rig is involved".
My point in all this is, If we have these problems because dishonest people know a trucking company has to carry a lot of insurance, can you imagine what Disney faces? And I am sure they payoff in many cases just to avoid a court case. Their exposure is tremendous. And there are many, many unscrupulous lawyers who will take on a lawsuit simply because the possibility exists that it will be settled out of court.
By the way? I am not a lawyer hater, just the slimy ones. Did I mention Our Oldest DD is an attorney? She does not advertise on TV.
Penny