The system of justice we have involves compensation through money damages. And that may seem dissed tasteful to some. That may seem like money isn’t the best way to make a person whole. But when you think about it, it’s really the only modern civilized system there could be. If a person injures another person, there are potentially a couple of different ways that the system could result in some compensation or reconciliation for what happened. The Bible says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” The Bible also goes on to note that this justice is for God to deliver. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that humans are to do this to one another. Yet that was indeed the case in many cultures for many centuries. If you hurt my wife or my animal or my family or my property, then justice allowed that I could go over to your home and do the same thing to you. I guess they thought two wrongs make a right.
Another way would be to ignore it and allow for lawlessness and unruly behavior. That’s not a good system. There must be some deterrent effect. There has to be something negative that happens to the person that is careless or sloppy or neglectful or intentionally harms another human being.
So the system we have is the most merciful. It is a system that allows a commodity, which may be replenished to go from the person causing the harm to the person suffering from the injury. None of us can turn back the clock in and undo the damage, but we also don’t repeat the harm with the eye for an eye method. What we do is have a system of justice that reduces the harm to dollars, and then we bring in strangers from society to decide how many of those dollars will make that person whole. And it’s much better than doubling the harm and having two victims, and it’s much better than merely ignoring the damage and enabling it or fostering it or creating fertile ground for it to occur again.
I didn’t create any of the harms that were visited on my clients. I’m not the one that got drunk and ran through the stop sign and injured them—changing their life forever. I’m not the one that caused them to go to a hospital to get the care and miss time from work and wake up in the morning and not feel the same. I’m on the back and just trying to make things even. And the only way to make it even is through dollars, and that may seem distasteful, but I challenge you to come up with a better system. Until we can turn back the clock in time travel and avoid the peril, it’s the best system out there.
If you’ve been injured through no fault of your own, contact Steve Howard Law for a case evaluation. Our system of justice is merciful and Steve can help you get what you deserve.
