That's why the manufacturers are named in the lawsuit whenever possible, much deeper pockets. A drunk driver rear ends a Chevy Malibu and it unbelievably bursts into flames and GM is responsible.
http://www.psandb.com/case-anderson-gm.html
http://www.psandb.com/private_plane_crash_attorneys.html#landmarkresults
Yup.
People with a significant number of assets will occasionally ask about "liability planning." Worried about things like car accidents and looking like targets. It's a legitimate concern. Fancy legal stuff is great and can be very useful in the right circumstances, but I usually tell people that they're best off with a good insurance policy from a reputable company.
... I just haven't heard of a case where a private car crashed and a jury awarded 19.4M in damages.
....
I have firsthand knowledge of a few car accidents with damages in this range (I'd prefer not to go into details). Statistically, they're very rare, but again, think about how many lawsuits are filed - means that they're fairly common.
In tort law, there are a few principal forms of damage that are calculated (keep in mind that this is fairly general). First are "economic damages" - medical expenses, wages lost in the past or in the future, etc. Depending on who and what you've got (let's say the CEO for Coca-Cola with grievous injuries who can never work again and who had 20 years of work left before him), you've got a potentially huge number here. These damages could also be called "OK, you ----ed me up, do what you can to fix me" - we call them "economic" because we can easily put a number on them (i.e., I made $X/year, and I wasn't able to work for a year, so you owe me $X).
Second are "noneconomic damages" - pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of consortium (isn't that a nice, polite, term for it), etc. These can also be large, but you don't really see them until you get into very serious injuries or death. Obviously, these damages are a lot harder to put a number on and, despite everything we hear in the news, juries generally don't give out very high numbers in this category.
Third are punitive damages. Many, if not most, jurisdictions have severely restricted these (no more than $250K, or no more than what is awarded in "actual" damages, etc.).
But, these days, in my experience, in personal injury law most of your damages are going to come from the economic category. And, chances are that it will be insurance companies suing each other under the names of their insureds, rather than the individuals suing each other. As in, if you run me over and my insurance pays me benefits,
my insurance company might turn around and sue
your insurance company to recoup that amount. Although we might be the named parties, you and I would really be more like witnesses in that case - we wouldn't be calling the shots, and we might actually not want there to be lawsuits at all.
You'll hear about things like daughters suing mothers after car accidents - chances are that this is the daughter's health ins. co. suing Mom's auto. ins. co.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I hope it sheds a little light.
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