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Hi. ItÕs Gerry Oginski, coming to you from the Negev desert, here in Israel. I was thinking
about something my tour guide was talking about and I have to tell you, IÕm here in
the middle of nowhere and IÕm at my hotel and it is the most magnificent thing just
sitting here in the middle of the desert, itÕs like an oasis. But one of the things
my tour guide was talking about that I wanted to tell you about involves caps on pain and
suffering. In turns out that our tour guide was a lieutenant colonel in the Israel army.
And his daughter happened to be involved in a very significant car accident here. What
happened was she was crossing the street as a pedestrian and a careless driver actually
hit her and almost killed her. She was in the hospital and in a coma for a week. And
then remained in the hospital in rehab for a couple of weeks after that. Now what interesting
was that he told me something very, very significant. He said that the maximum that sheÕs going
to be able to recover for pain and suffering here in Israel is $100,000. She'll still be
able recover from lost economic loss - which includes wages, as well as medical expenses.
But the maximum she can ever recover for her injuries for pain and suffering is $100,000.
Now hereÕs some more of the facts. It turns out that traveling right behind the car that
hit her was an Army unit that had 4 medics that were returning from an exercise. And
lucky for this young girl - she was 24 at the time - all these 4 medics literally witnessed
the accident, they jumped out with all their medical equipment and started attending to
her immediately. What fascinated me was that their legal system here in Israel (IÕm on
tour here with my family) limits the ability for a victim to recover only a maximum of
$100,000 dollars. In New York, there is no cap on pain and suffering. What does that
mean? It means that no one has put an artificial limit as to how much you can actually recover
if you have been injured by a careless driver or someone who caused an accident, and that
is very significant. Where do they come up with a number like $100,000? There are states
throughout the country, the United States, that has caps on pain and suffering. Some
of them at $250,000, some at $500,000, some at different amounts. Where do they come up
with that number? The reality is it is an arbitrary number and it such an arbitrary
number that it is designed to limit the amount than an insurance company has to pay in order
to compensate you for the injuries that you suffered. ItÕs an outrageous thing, especially
when you are on the opposite end and you are now trying to figure out how you are going
to get compensated for the suffering and everything that you have gone through because somebody
was careless. Well thatÕs pretty much it, I just wanted to get this off my chest and
sit here in this beautiful location here in Negev desert. I am Gerry Oginski, coming to
you here from Israel. Thanks for watching.