Now that is an interpretation I've never seen before, a manufacturer and dealer handing out money just to help the family of a fallen cop. Come on, take the rose colored glasses off and join the real world. If that was the intent, why make the family fight for six years first? These lawsuits have been going on for decades, and the reason you don't know much about them is that H-D settles without admitting fault and requires a nondisclosure agreement as part of the settlement. In other words, run your mouth about the settlement, lose the money.
The entire idea behind settling is to not have an independent assignment of blame on the record. That way H-D can continue to pretend there is no handling issue with their Touring models. If there ever were an independent determination of a defect that stood up in court, the cost to the Mo Co in future lawsuits and in possible recall actions would be astronomical. So far, for whatever reason, no one has invested the time, money, and engineering talent to prove beyond doubt that the design defect exists.
When you read the article, look at the statement about the restriction the Raleigh P.D. placed on the bikes after the incident (and which remains in effect to this day); officers no longer are allowed to patrol on the interstates on the Harley's. I guess if you want to be a full function motor cop, rather than just a parade marshall, you have to move to CA where they have BMW's. Now that is one hell of an advertisement for the Mo Co.
Jerry
Jerry...sorry if I was misunderstood...I did not mean to imply that the Mo Co and the dealer are settling to create a public relations lovefest or anything. Furthermore, I interpret the 7 year wait to be a technique used in alot of lawsuits involving big businesses. The Company sequesters the funds they feel they will loose if the trial goes south on them in some type of interest bearing do-hickey. Then they slug out the preliminaries with the plaintiff...inflicting as much red tape on the case as they may, dragging it out... Just prior to trial, they (basically) try to
settle for the interest they earned on the original sum, minus (of course a few legal fees), and often do not have to admit guilt...It costs them very little if done right
The public relations I refer to, is that there is still a PD motor unit that will continue to purchase or lease Wheels from someone. The Mo Co and this dealer probably still want that to be their job...Public relations may come from articles written about this type of thing, but the Mo Co hedges their bet, and other (PDs) consumers read it how its written up
The truth about the wobble whether real or perceived rarely matters if these things actually go to trial, and the companies know it... the outcome of a trial to the Mo Co could very well be a lose/lose situation. If they win the trial and pay nothing they still have an angry PD cycle unit who will certainly let others know (probably hurts their sales numbers more than just this PD) , a distraught widow (and the "bad press" that will garner), and they still have legal fees (cause nobody is going after a police widow for legal fees). If they loose the trial they pay the
large number for this trial, and (in this case, more than likely) start a chain reaction of similar lawsuits which would be really really bad. This is just my impression of this suit, and the distance between it and the truth in this case is the same regardless of the color of my lenses...
-Randy
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Topic: Harley Wobble Suit Settled (Read 9136 times)