A little over a year and nine months ago, I suffered the most horrific car crash of my life. While making a left turn in my Yellow Cab, a lady in an SUV T-boned the passenger side. Fortunately, I had no passengers or they would have surely been killed. Also fortunately, the Ford Crown Victoria is a big car, so smashing the passenger side only caused minor injuries for me. Some bruised ribs, jammed fingers and a lingering concussion. I took five days off work, and within two weeks, I healed from my injuries. I count myself very lucky to this day.

I thought I was so lucky that I didn't feel the need to try and sue anyone. The ambulance ride cost me $400 & sitting around in the ER for an hour with no real treatment cost me $200. Still, I thought it could have been worse. Pay the $600 and put the incident behind you.

Of course, we live in America, so trying to make money off tragedy is commonplace. When the lady T-boned me, my cab skidded into across the road and bumped two other cars. Again, I was fortunate not to be sandwiched. The damage to the other two cars was minimal, but a couple bumpers were busted.

For the past year and a half, I have received a handful of subrogation notices. These are basically from third parties who know nothing about the accident, but for some reason believe they should extort money out anyone involved. Yellow Cab has their own lawyer on retainer, so even though I have no personal lawyer, I suddenly had one representing me. Ta-da!

I gave him the subrogation notices, and the calls & letters ceased for a while. Then one day, a few months back, I received a subpoena for court. It turns out that State Farm Insurance was suing Yellow Cab, me & the driver who hit me for $3600. When in doubt, sue everyone. So there I was, back in the lawyer's office. It turns out the lawyer grew up in the same town I did, and he reminded me of the good ol' boys from that town but with more of a brain. State Farm was suing because they had to pay out to one of the bumper victims, and if there's one thing I've learned about insurance companies, they don't like to pay anyone for anything.

I learned more about the driver who hit me than I ever wanted to know. She had a criminal record involving drugs and was basically broke. If I had tried to sue her for anything, it would have been in vain. State Farm saw the phrase Yellow Cab, so they knew who they were really going after.

As a side irony, State Farm has been the insurance company for my vehicles since I could drive. I've paid them well over $3600 for basic mandatory liability insurance. I guess that means that my money is going to lawyers to sue other people for money. I hate insurance companies.

As the trial approached, my lawyer talked to me about what happened, what points I needed to stress, and a couple tricks they like to do to trap a witness. The evidence was pretty much on my side. A policeman's testimony put most of the blame on the lady. It looked like a solid case for Yellow Cab & me. The lawyer also said he didn't understand why the insurance company hadn't settled yet. Yellow Cab offered $3000 to the company mainly because with lawyer's fees it would cost at least four grand to go to trial (see who's really making the money off the legal system?).

This Monday, I called up the lawyer to check on the time & place of trial the next day. Incidentally, the case would be heard by an arbitrator (a lawyer acting as a judge) because real judges don't listen to cases involving less than $20,000 in damage. My lawyer said he had a message from State Farm's lawyer and was about to get back to him. Two minutes later, he called back and said it was settled. That was it.

21 months later from a horrific event, personal healing, subrogation notices, paperwork, phone calls, meetings with a lawyer, getting the day off for the trial, preparing my brain for anything, and it was settled for three freaking grand.

This was but a minuscule example of our legal system. Trying to hold others financially responsible for a tragic event. People hoping that money will fix things. All I learned is that the only people who get rich off the legal system are lawyers. They are immersed in a twisted racket, and I would like to avoid it as much as I can in my life. As a little happy ending, my case was the last one for my lawyer, who will retire from practicing at the end of the year. I wished him a happy retirement.

Meanwhile, I went to work on the Tuesday I was supposed to go to trial. I didn't make much money in the cab that day, but it was a reminder that life goes on much as it did the week before. There is a slim chance that one more person may try and sue over a busted bumper (the statute of limitations is three years on this type of thing), and I may have to go through this again. Of course, I've always relied on the kindness of strangers. Let's hope people realize suing isn't worth the hassle for a couple bucks.

Chris Jungle has yet to sue anyone, but can belt out a feisty rendition of "A Boy Named Sue."