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Comment by hluska | Hacker News Reader

I think it is a shame when trying to help people opens you up to liability. If that's not a sign that our society is too litigious, I don't know what is.

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It's also why companies do not apologize, except as part of a settlement. An apology is an admission of guilt, opening the company to liability.

Man, this country is really messed up sometimes...

What's really messed up is that companies can lose a case in court, and then still not admit guilt or wrong doing.

At that point, hasn't the court basically overruled them? They lost the court case. End of story (?)

Losing a civil case is not proof beyond reasonable doubt, but a 51% preponderance of evidence. A company can lose a case, and still not be guilty - why apologize for something you're not guilty of?

Why not apologize for something you know you are guilty of? That's the real problem, that rarely happens (especially in the case of a corporation).

At least in German the word "to apologize" ("sich entschuldigen"; although this translation, though often used, is considered to be impolite; if you are interested in the details read http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/zwiebelfisch-entsc...) has "Schuld" ("guilt") in it. This implicitely states the belief that there exists a concept as guilt, which I don't, since I don't believe in free will.

The law should not compel you to say something you believe to be false. If you lose a court case, it should be legal to say, "I still believe I did nothing wrong, but I will pay the penalty as the court has ordered."

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