Need some quick cash? Here’s an idea: Sue the city.
You might strike it rich.
Indeed, thousands sue every year. And, as Angela Montefinise recently reported in The Post, more than a few hit the jackpot — deservedly or not.
Take Manuel Martinez. After snorting 2½ bags of heroin, Martinez, who had a number of prior arrests, ran from the cops and wound up getting hurt. Naturally, he sued, winning a jaw-dropping $5.5 million from taxpayers.
True, cops mistook him for someone who’d just fired off six gunshots. And his injuries left him paralyzed.
But no one told him to flee — or to fry his brain with narcotics.
In any case, it’s certainly hard to justify that kind of award.
Yet Martinez is hardly an anomaly.
Indeed, taxpayers coughed up some $69 million for just the top 10 payouts last year.
All told, personal-injury awards cost the city a whopping $403 million in 2008 alone.
This at a time, by the way, when City Hall is ever-squeezed for cash.
What can be done?
Plenty.
For years, the city has tried to get state lawmakers to limit Gotham’s exposure.
One reform, for example, would end double-dipping for public employees who win suits against the city.
Currently, these people (unlike private-sector workers) can collect a tax-free disability pension and a tax-free jury award for lost earnings.
It’s outrageous, and costly.
There are other no-brainer ideas, too:
* Making awards proportionate to the city’s share of responsibility for an injury — and barring payments entirely if the fault lies mostly with the plaintiff. (Duh.)
* Limiting lawyers fees to what the law dictates in medical-malpractice suits.
* Capping pain-and-suffering awards.
Alas, New York lawmakers answer to the tort bar; Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver isn’t the only lawmaker with a close association with a top tort-law firm.
So don’t expect much change soon.
Even if the city goes broke from lawsuits like that of Manuel Martinez.
