I can't comment about your buddies story, sounds awful. I just know that trying cases for 30 years and never having the inclination to put dollars over dignity and professionalism and become a billboard or bus stop lawyer, I think we have the best system in the world.
Judges don't commonly award damages here in Florida, it's the province of a jury. I'm wondering if your buddy embellished the story just a tad?
In any event, the law now requires the lawyer and the client to each pay half if they file a frivolous case. We have tightened up on the bad apples, but not tight enough. The public has no litmus test to see if a lawyer is competent and real lawyers don't take bogus cases because 1/3 of zero is zero. The days of suing someone or getting an insurance company to cough up nuisance money are long gone in my experience.
Florida has "comparative negligence" which allows a jury to find each party partially at fault. In your example above BMW could be partially at fault and the brother half or any percentage.
There is a bad practice of confidential settlements these days. It allows a manufacturer to settle a claim, perhaps not wanting the public to know or word to get out about a defect. This defeats a purpose of the system and there are folks working to prohibit these type things.
Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but I would never escape the horror of thinking my child died because she couldn't open the door from the inside. I'd relive it every day.
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