It's no secret that the American legal system is broken. Many defendants are convicted with little evidence. A case study from 1968 was Johnson v. Wilmoth in VA. This was an “automobile accident case where defendant was blinded by oncoming headlights. Virginia does not follow strict liability rule for temporary impairment of vision by glaring lights that requires motorists to stop or proceed at peril”.
Each year, 15 million civil cases are filed in the U.S. In Virginia a woman named Irene Banks Johnson (plaintiff) filed a motion for judgment against a woman named Racheal Wilmoth (defendant) seeking to recover damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained by the plaintiff when she was struck, while a pedestrian, by an automobile operated by the defendant. The defendant filed grounds of defense denying negligence on her part and alleging that the plaintiff's own negligence caused or contributed to the injuries …show more content…
The plaintiff alleged that the defendant was negligent because she "without warning, recklessly drove the said vehicle off the paved road, onto the dirt shoulder immediately adjacent thereto, striking the plaintiff." Now the plaintiff says that the defendant was negligent because she did not "pull off the road," a position quite inconsistent with that advanced in the motion for judgment, and one not entitled to further comment. We focus our attention upon the plaintiff's argument that the defendant was negligent, as a matter of law, because she did not bring her vehicle to a stop or rapidly apply her