Bicyclists = Statistics

On Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 5:26:24 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 4/11/2016 6:36 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 4/11/2016 3:54 PM, jbeattie wrote:
... If a car is violating a law at the time of an
accident, it is presumed to be at fault. Same goes with a
bike.

Um... you may want to rephrase that. Both the car and the
bike have immunity, being inanimate objects.

Although I understand there are some precedents for
punishing inanimate objects, if you go back far enough. See
http://tinyurl.com/o7wmqpl


nice link.
Civil forfeiture is indeed evil if not medieval. 'After
conviction' was once the limit, now the State can merely
claim witchcraft or whatever to seize assets.

Prejudgment attachment to secure a civil debt used to occur all the time. It was mostly done away with except maritime attachment ("arrest"). I've arrested many vessels over the course of my career -- and had to put up security for vessels to get them released. I arrested a vessel for unpaid port charges, and I got security at about 2:00AM and agreed to release the vessel -- which needed to get on its way and out of Portland. I went to the office, typed up an order woke up a judge and drove to her house and got the order signed in her front room, which was very nice. FAXed it to the custodian, US Marshal, Coast Guard, etc., etc. They let the vessel go although, technically, I should have woken the clerk because the order is not effective until filed. One of my partners had the Marshal arrest a vessel as it was steaming out to the mouth of the Columbia -- we dropped him in on a helicopter. Ships can be arrested and made to answer for the debt of the owner or charterer.

-- Jay Beattie.