Justice is restored... I guess?
So just got word that the woman who hit me with her car has had her licence revoked for 6 months, and that I'll be getting $750.00 for my trouble (in weekly increments of $100 for 7.5 weeks).
I didn't write a victim impact statement or anything, and the officer in charge of the case didn't know that due to the accident I was now a cyborg* - so my take on the justice side of things is that the $750 amount is really very arbitrary. In terms of my costs - well pretty much all my costs were covered by ACC and my folks, and in the scheme of things I took 4.5 days off work and then life was annoying, but manageable for a while. I also have a pretty large scar from the surgery. $750 might be too much in terms of the costs I had to get back to it (it being life/work etc) or grossly too little if I took everything I could have possibly been prevented from doing and assigned some value to it.
I did have the option of filling in a victim impact statement - which may have meant more or less restorative stuff I guess - depending if I pulled a European Soccer'esque hollywood and claimed all sorts of bad stuff to try and garner more cash - or maybe less told them the truth, that in the scheme of things I'm a live and let live kinda guy and while I think the woman was clearly a bad driver, who had a bad handle on things in the conditions - I hold no animosity towards but think badly needs some re-teaching (assuming this isn't one in a string of incidents of course!).
So yeah - I guess if you don't say anything you get what you get - which is actually how I wanted it. I'm lucky though - there was a witness and it could have easily been just my word against her in which case I would probably have got no moolah and she might not have been taken off the road to think about her driving.
I can't help but think though that it's coming up to Christmas, and as the accident didn't cost me much maybe I should do something to find out how much that $750.00 I'm owed is going to negatively effect the driver - I mean, she could be a single mother with kids and things for all I know and then they'd effectively be punished as well (obviously the lack of a parent driver would be a negative impact too - but compared to other people's safety I can see her being off the road is probably for the greater good - assuming she becomes a better driver for it - which is a big assumption.)
So yeah - Justice is a tough one - the courts can't possibly get complete information, and the individuals involved are kinda left in the dark if they aren't proactive about it (which, for 'victims' is a hassle on top of existing hassles based on a thing that they'd rather not have happened at all, and I'm pretty sure that in this case the 'offender' is a similar boat).
The one good thing is the comparative speed of resolution to systems which don't have an ACC like no fault system. A workmate from Ireland is still waiting for a court date from an accident that happened YEARS ago where she broke her arm, to cover bills and stuff. She gets letters from lawyers like every 6 months or something with a progress update and that's about it. At least with ACC I didn't have to worry about hospital and surgical bills, which would have been enormous compared to what I earn - so ACC for me continues to be a good thing..
So yeah - resolution yes. Justice I have no idea. The money is going to probably cover third party insurance for my car at the end of the day - so if I have an accident (rather than something negligent) I can at least rest assured that the risk and damage has well and truly been shared around in an attempt to minimize individual impact - which is kinda the whole point of insurance and communities in a way.
I didn't write a victim impact statement or anything, and the officer in charge of the case didn't know that due to the accident I was now a cyborg* - so my take on the justice side of things is that the $750 amount is really very arbitrary. In terms of my costs - well pretty much all my costs were covered by ACC and my folks, and in the scheme of things I took 4.5 days off work and then life was annoying, but manageable for a while. I also have a pretty large scar from the surgery. $750 might be too much in terms of the costs I had to get back to it (it being life/work etc) or grossly too little if I took everything I could have possibly been prevented from doing and assigned some value to it.
I did have the option of filling in a victim impact statement - which may have meant more or less restorative stuff I guess - depending if I pulled a European Soccer'esque hollywood and claimed all sorts of bad stuff to try and garner more cash - or maybe less told them the truth, that in the scheme of things I'm a live and let live kinda guy and while I think the woman was clearly a bad driver, who had a bad handle on things in the conditions - I hold no animosity towards but think badly needs some re-teaching (assuming this isn't one in a string of incidents of course!).
So yeah - I guess if you don't say anything you get what you get - which is actually how I wanted it. I'm lucky though - there was a witness and it could have easily been just my word against her in which case I would probably have got no moolah and she might not have been taken off the road to think about her driving.
I can't help but think though that it's coming up to Christmas, and as the accident didn't cost me much maybe I should do something to find out how much that $750.00 I'm owed is going to negatively effect the driver - I mean, she could be a single mother with kids and things for all I know and then they'd effectively be punished as well (obviously the lack of a parent driver would be a negative impact too - but compared to other people's safety I can see her being off the road is probably for the greater good - assuming she becomes a better driver for it - which is a big assumption.)
So yeah - Justice is a tough one - the courts can't possibly get complete information, and the individuals involved are kinda left in the dark if they aren't proactive about it (which, for 'victims' is a hassle on top of existing hassles based on a thing that they'd rather not have happened at all, and I'm pretty sure that in this case the 'offender' is a similar boat).
The one good thing is the comparative speed of resolution to systems which don't have an ACC like no fault system. A workmate from Ireland is still waiting for a court date from an accident that happened YEARS ago where she broke her arm, to cover bills and stuff. She gets letters from lawyers like every 6 months or something with a progress update and that's about it. At least with ACC I didn't have to worry about hospital and surgical bills, which would have been enormous compared to what I earn - so ACC for me continues to be a good thing..
So yeah - resolution yes. Justice I have no idea. The money is going to probably cover third party insurance for my car at the end of the day - so if I have an accident (rather than something negligent) I can at least rest assured that the risk and damage has well and truly been shared around in an attempt to minimize individual impact - which is kinda the whole point of insurance and communities in a way.