There is a reason this group of people is number one.  Of all the groups of people on this list, this is the one people sue most often.  As my grandmother used to say, “You can’t draw blood from a turnip.”  By the same token, you cannot make someone give you money if that person does not have any money to give. As our friends at Legal Scoops say, “suing someone who doesn’t have any money can be frustrating and fruitless.” 

Nothing makes people mad like being sued.  Do you still want that doctor to perform your surgery?  Then, you probably do not want to sue him.  Do you still want to buy flowers from the corner flower shop?  Then do not sue them.  If you sue them, they will probably ask you never to come back to their flower shop.

I get phone calls frequently from people who want to, for example, sue a business because they fell down the steps when visiting that business.  When I hear that someone wants to sue because he or she fell down the steps, but first question is always “what was wrong with the steps?”  If the answer is “Nothing, I just fell,” that is going to be a problem.

If no one did anything (or failed to do anything) that caused you harm, you probably cannot win a lawsuit.  If the business failed to keep the steps safe and unobstructed, that is a different matter entirely.  Was the carpet on the steps torn?  Were the steps slippery because someone dropped something on them and never bothered to clean it up?  In that case, the defendant may have done something wrong.  It may have failed in its obligation to keep the steps reasonably safe.

There are some cases that involve “strict liability,” meaning the defendant can be liable even if the defendant was not negligent.  Strict liability usually comes up in the context of products, like drugs, or fertilizer, or tools.  Even in strict liability cases, there has to be something wrong with the product.  Otherwise, you cannot win.