Why should I be prepared for a rap sheet or large legal bills? Like the subject here, I don't break the law I just don't tolerate the cops breaking it either. He had his charges dropped and is filing a multi-million dollar lawsuit which I'm sure he will settle for at least several hundred thousand. He doesn't seem to be accruing either.
Why would one want to get arrested? To sue? You do understand that even though charges get dropped you retain an arrest record? The disposition shows the charges were dropped but the incident is available for anyone who checks your background. You pay an attorney to get those charges dropped right? You wouldn't speak to LE without an attorney right?
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This is the same as wanting to have a car accident so you can sue. No lawsuit is worth blemishing a perfect lifetime record... unless one is destitute. Couple hundred thousand? Not worth the risk, the time and effort. It's one thing if it happens by chance. It's another if one is intentionally provoking it. Not misfeasance, but rather malfeasance. Intent through malicious behavior. Should it be known that someone was baiting the LEO with the intent to sue, that fact would bode badly in a civil trial. I believe it would anger a jury.
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To get a large civil payout requires more than LE simply not knowing the law. The LEO officer must act in an egregious manner with intent to harm you or otherwise deprive you of a right. He must go farther than misfeasance to commit malfeasance. In most states in order to sue you must prove a tort,
measurable damages and a "close-causal-connection" between the tort and damages. Mental anguish damages generally need be attached to some documented physical suffering and be shown via objective findings. The municipality carries insurance for errors and omissions as well as general liability. Errors and omissions coverage would pay settlement compensation when the LEO acted without knowledge of the law, thus violating your rights. Recoverable damages include compensatory, pecuniary, incidental, general, etc. This does not include punitive damages. In such cases most states disallow recovery of court costs and legal fees.
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In the event the LEO, through evidence or the testimony of witnesses, intentionally harmed someone, deprived them of a right he knew was above his jurisdiction, then the stage is set for a punitive damage. Such damages are used to punish the municipality and to ensure this never happens again. It is only a very, very small percentage of people that ever recover any monetary award for wrongful arrest unless it is proven that the official acted with depraved indifference to your rights and the law. It's generally hard to prove a dollar amount in harm.