BMW: The Ultimate Cracking Machine

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by Spectre

BMW appears to use eleant and complex answers to engineering questions that had actually already been asked, answered, and codified in simpler, less problematic solutions.

BMW: Cars designed by Rube Goldberg

[Ventura6]

Originally Posted by thedguy

Didn't know it was a popular belief. I don't waste my energy on novels, I'd much rather read an engineering text book, or something educational.

I was referencing lawsuits like the split fire plugs:

This is more bad lawyering then bad policy. If your dog died because pet food was bad, you don't settle on a free bag of pet food.

Or another case against motorola where a problem with a $320 phone got them a $25 credit towards their bills. But the attorneys got a healthy chunk of change.

OK, this is a perfect example.

Let's say that 3,000 people all bought a cell phone and it was completely defective. You buy it, it works fine for a day, then it permanently turns off.

Here are your options. You either do a class action suit, or you try to fight it by yourself. If you think you aren't going to need an attorney, think again. So now the attorney is saying, as he should, I'm not going to even look at this unless I get a 100 dollars. And if it goes to court, I'm going to need at least 1,000. This is all reasonable because looking a problems, researching, drafting documents, making court runs, endless copies of documents, opportunity cost is a huge factor, and myriad other thing all cost money. He won't do it on contingency because what's 33% of $320? 107? Not attorney is going to think about walking into a court room for that. And you aren't going to pay him the $1,100 to try the case because that's more than you were damaged in the first place.

And let's not forget, you aren't alone in all this. So while you're thinking you can probably go to small claims court because the amount of damages is less than $5,000, for how long do you think a judge is going to sit there and hear a case, when there are 100 more that week on the docket?

There is a certain use for class action suits. Sure the attorney's get a big chunk of the money.... but so what. They are the one's organizing the whole thing, making sure jurisdiction and venue is followed, keeping track of everyone's case, and in bigger cases, making sure that the company doesn't go bankrupt so that the plaintiffs at least have a chance of getting something.

Bankruptcy, another fine aspect of all this. Companies don't have infinite money, so when they have to deal with 1,000 separate lawsuits, you drain the pool of possible rewards for your suffering. A company worth a million is only going to be able to pay out a certain percentage of that before they throw the hat in an give up the ghost, leaving everyone else who has yet to sue up shit creek.

There's a time and a place for everything, and this includes class action lawsuits.