A few years ago, my wife was at a red light, waiting to make a right turn. There was a car in front of her who started to make a right on red, then stopped. Wife started to make her turn, was looking left and hit him. Totally her fault, no damage to either vehicle, they exchanged info and went on their way. A couple of years later, she finds out that he is suing for $750K - pain and suffering, lost time at work, etc ad nauseum. Our insurance company did an investigation and found that for the 6 weeks after the accident, he worked an average of 55 hrs a week in his job as a heavy equipment operator at a construction site. Case ended up going to trial, and the jury awarded him $1200 (he had turned down a settlement offer of $45K the day before). Just as I was thinking that the system worked, the judge made a second award not to the guy she hit, but to his lawyers, so that our insurance company would cover their costs.

The whole system is screwed up.