(not asking for advice, just a thought that popped into my head)
I understand that medical injuries are a factor in something like a missing caution sign, but how is it that someone can sue and win in a case of common sense when a company has no sign? For example, many companies use signs so they are not liable for theft at say a public laundromat but some don’t have this. How do they avoid a lawsuit when they don’t have a sign even though it is common sense? What type of law protects a customer when a business lacks a sign and allows them to win against a business owner?
Lawsuits often go in front of juries.
Civil juries do whatever the hell they want.
Every step a company takes to make sure that a reasonable customer will avoid hurting themselves makes it more likely a jury will blame an unreasonable one who hurts themselves being unreasonable.
There is truth in this, but it needs a little bit more context. If a civil lawsuit – eg personal injury claim – goes to trial and either party requests a jury, then yes, the jury is mostly unrestrained in what sort of damages (or none at all) they find. But they don’t have absolute authority.
The caveat is that some jurisdictions have hard caps on the type of damages. Texas limits punitive damages (meant as punishment to ward off copycats from causing the same harms) to 2x the economic damages (loss of money or value; excludes emotional suffering) plus $750k. This was raised as an issue in the lawsuit brought in Texas against Alex Jones where the jury awarded approximately $50 million, although the judge did not determine that the Texas cap would apply, and so it didn’t. Jones could have appealed that decision, but I couldn’t find news articles suggesting he did.
There’s also a court’s inherent duty to deliver due process, which would allow a judge to cut down a jury award which is so outlandish that it is not supported by the evidence. This is similar to throwing out a criminal guilty verdict when no shred of evidence supported guilt. The opposite is rare, as a judge usually doesn’t increase a jury award; judges might add sanctions instead though.
The odd quirk is that the fickleness of juries – both criminal or civil – is often used to broker a settlement or plea deal. When Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News, their suit requested $1.4 billion in compensation. But a jury could have found more damages than that. But it could also have been much lower. To avoid that gamble, the parties agreed to settle for $787.5 million. A settlement cannot be appealed and permanently terminates the lawsuit, which provides some peace to all parties. As for the merits of criminal plea deals, the pros and cons are better described here: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/plea-bargaining-necessary-evil
I’m not talking about the amount.
I’m saying they’re much less predictable, so nonsense like having obvious signs saying “don’t be stupid” can affect their ruling regardless of how necessary it should be.