Friday, January 06, 2006

Who do I sue?

Wired reports that some residents of New York State are up in arms over plans to install wind turbines in and around their homes.

The comments of one (particularly visionary) resident suggest the potential for an as yet untouched identity application. Patricia Oakes, a Hartsville, New York, resident asked:

"...Who do I sue if I have any health problems or my property value decreases because of this project?"

Beyond my admiration for Ms. Oakes' foresight (too often people wait till after suffering harm before they start contemplating damages) and the specifics of the windmill issue, surely an identity metasystem could help Patricia (and others with a litigious bent) obtain an answer to this question?

Currently it is a mostly hit-and-miss process by which Patricia finds potential candidates for her lawsuits. This ad-hoc nature allmost certainly means that she is unable to be fully compensated for the harm (known or otherwise) from which she is suffering.

Why not allow people to store and publish the list of current ailments, grievances, damages, etc that they are currently suffering from (or might in the future) - this identity info discoverable by 'suebots'. Lawyers would similarly publish the class-action lawsuits they were prosecuting (or even contemplating prosecuting should demand warrant) and the relevant individuals could be found and matched. People needn't even know they were part of a particular lawsuit, simply wronged in a high-level and non-specific manner.

For too long, American's have borne the burden themselves of finding litigants for their potential lawsuits. They need our help.

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