Insulted for His Autism, Taught Himself law, sued his gym

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ASPartOfMe
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25 Mar 2017, 2:14 am

On Being Insulted for His Autism, This UK Indian Taught Himself the Law & Successfully Sued His Gym


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League_Girl
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25 Mar 2017, 2:23 am

So you can sue for someone insulting you. That was in the UK though so things are different there while here in the US we have freedom of speech so he might not have been able to do that here what he did there because of our laws here. He would have to prove in court here what they said harmed him and made him feel threatened and unsafe and hurt his reputation and it went beyond freedom of speech. I think that would be very hard to sue someone over here because of our US constitution.


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liveandrew
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25 Mar 2017, 3:56 am

League_Girl wrote:
So you can sue for someone insulting you. That was in the UK though so things are different there while here in the US we have freedom of speech so he might not have been able to do that here what he did there because of our laws here. He would have to prove in court here what they said harmed him and made him feel threatened and unsafe and hurt his reputation and it went beyond freedom of speech. I think that would be very hard to sue someone over here because of our US constitution.

Not, exactly. The he sued because he was discriminated against because of his disability. The court decided that Ketan Aggarwal was singled out and called stupid because he is autistic.

Here's a slightly more complete article. I know it's the Daily Mail and they're not known for their truthfulness or for being non-partisan but it does contain a little more information including...

"Claimant believes this is disability related harassment as [the instructor] was aware of the previous incident [where Mr Aggarwal told staff he had autism].."

Obviously, we or the Daily Mail don't have all the facts but the court ruled in Aggarwal's favour and that's fine by me.


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25 Mar 2017, 4:12 am

I still believe what I said before because did the instructor hear the other person say the music was too slow and unmotivating and the instructor had no way of knowing he had autism. I can understand why he would feel singled out because I have been there myself when others would get away with something and I didn't because everyone batted an eye about it but not for others who did the same thing. But I try and look at it logically and look at all the possibilities before deciding I am being treated different like did he hear the person and was his voice loud when he agreed with that person. It was unprofessional of the trainer to call him stupid and it's wrong to call anyone that.

But the bonus to this is hopefully the place has learned to treat all their customers with respect and to take action if any of their workers act unprofessional.


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25 Mar 2017, 4:23 am

League_Girl wrote:
I still believe what I said before because did the instructor hear the other person say the music was too slow and unmotivating and the instructor had no way of knowing he had autism. I can understand why he would feel singled out because I have been there myself when others would get away with something and I didn't because everyone batted an eye about it but not for others who did the same thing. But I try and look at it logically and look at all the possibilities before deciding I am being treated different like did he hear the person and was his voice loud when he agreed with that person. It was unprofessional of the trainer to call him stupid and it's wrong to call anyone that.

But the instructor did know that he was autistic and the court agreed!

"Claimant believes this is disability related harassment as [the instructor] was aware of the previous incident [where Mr Aggarwal told staff he had autism].."

He also singled out Aggarwal rather than the person who originally voiced their dissatisfaction with the music. It looks like the term "stupid" was also used deliberately because of his "disability". But really it all comes down to the fact that the court agreed that it was discrimination, did not agree with Virgin's expense lawyers and I'm sure they had access to more facts than were reported in the newspapers.


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25 Mar 2017, 7:20 am

The general impression in the UK is that it is easier to sue people in the USA than in the UK rather than the other way round. Many countries have qualified free speech in a similar manner to the US, including the UK.



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25 Mar 2017, 8:33 am

UDG wrote:
The general impression in the UK is that it is easier to sue people in the USA than in the UK rather than the other way round. Many countries have qualified free speech in a similar manner to the US, including the UK.


Yeah , my general impression of the USA ( via media ) is that it is the lawsuit capital of the world and some of the strangest lawsuits are contested there. Although to be honest there are cases here in the UK that beggar belief like criminals suing their victims :roll:


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25 Mar 2017, 7:31 pm

Yeah, it's definitely the impression we have here in Europe, that the US is the lawsuit capital of the world and no lawsuits is too far fetched.
Unfortunately we do start to see a bit of that here too, as SaveFerris pointed out.


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25 Mar 2017, 8:58 pm

liveandrew wrote:
League_Girl wrote:
I still believe what I said before because did the instructor hear the other person say the music was too slow and unmotivating and the instructor had no way of knowing he had autism. I can understand why he would feel singled out because I have been there myself when others would get away with something and I didn't because everyone batted an eye about it but not for others who did the same thing. But I try and look at it logically and look at all the possibilities before deciding I am being treated different like did he hear the person and was his voice loud when he agreed with that person. It was unprofessional of the trainer to call him stupid and it's wrong to call anyone that.

But the instructor did know that he was autistic and the court agreed!

"Claimant believes this is disability related harassment as [the instructor] was aware of the previous incident [where Mr Aggarwal told staff he had autism].."

He also singled out Aggarwal rather than the person who originally voiced their dissatisfaction with the music. It looks like the term "stupid" was also used deliberately because of his "disability". But really it all comes down to the fact that the court agreed that it was discrimination, did not agree with Virgin's expense lawyers and I'm sure they had access to more facts than were reported in the newspapers.




I must have missed it then where it said he told the staff about his disability.


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25 Mar 2017, 9:00 pm

Skilpadde wrote:
Yeah, it's definitely the impression we have here in Europe, that the US is the lawsuit capital of the world and no lawsuits is too far fetched.
Unfortunately we do start to see a bit of that here too, as SaveFerris pointed out.




Are you guys turning into the US?


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26 Mar 2017, 5:11 am

Skilpadde wrote:
Yeah, it's definitely the impression we have here in Europe, that the US is the lawsuit capital of the world and no lawsuits is too far fetched.
Unfortunately we do start to see a bit of that here too, as SaveFerris pointed out.

In the US you can be sued for anything. Children aren't allowed to play on the schools playground after hours since they are afraid a child would hurt themselves and the parent would sue the school (this is true, personal experience).
My sister was once bitten by another child (both were 5 at the time) and the parents/teachers were very afraid that we would sue either the other parents/the school because another five year old bit my sister (we obviously didnt sue). Where i live it is completely unheard of that anything like that would happen.


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26 Mar 2017, 11:35 am

^ One has to wonder how it could get to that... It's madness.

League_Girl wrote:
Skilpadde wrote:
Yeah, it's definitely the impression we have here in Europe, that the US is the lawsuit capital of the world and no lawsuits is too far fetched.
Unfortunately we do start to see a bit of that here too, as SaveFerris pointed out.




Are you guys turning into the US?
In the way that we unfortunately are seeing an increase in ridiculous lawsuits, yes.


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26 Mar 2017, 12:22 pm

teksla wrote:
Skilpadde wrote:
Yeah, it's definitely the impression we have here in Europe, that the US is the lawsuit capital of the world and no lawsuits is too far fetched.
Unfortunately we do start to see a bit of that here too, as SaveFerris pointed out.

In the US you can be sued for anything. Children aren't allowed to play on the schools playground after hours since they are afraid a child would hurt themselves and the parent would sue the school (this is true, personal experience).
My sister was once bitten by another child (both were 5 at the time) and the parents/teachers were very afraid that we would sue either the other parents/the school because another five year old bit my sister (we obviously didnt sue). Where i live it is completely unheard of that anything like that would happen.


I remember when every Burger King took out all their playlands when I was about 11. I remember when every McDonald's had a playland and now only limited ones do. Playgrounds were more fun to play on and now they are not the same. I wonder why lawsuits increased. I hear it has to do with health insurance so people sue to get their medical bill paid by their insurance so its not like the people wanted to sue. But I still wonder what changed in life like have there always been ridiculous lawsuits or have they increased over the years and why.


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ASPartOfMe
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26 Mar 2017, 2:37 pm

Everybody is so scared to do anything for fear they will be sued or publicly shamed online for life. Very very bad. We are losing all concept of the difference between minor and major offense.


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26 Mar 2017, 4:16 pm

I better start shoveling our sidewalk sooner whenever it snows and put melting chemicals on the sidewalk to melt the snow and ice. Someone could fall down and sue us. :lol:

I also joke I can sue my work place if they make me come into work when it's very icy out and I slip and get hurt and go to the hospital but it will only be for to pay my medical bill and for how many days of work I have had to miss for my injury and all that could have been avoided if they didn't make their workers come into work in that bad weather. That might teach them a lesson. Sometimes it takes a lawsuit for them to get the message. That is what happened to some plant because I read a story on Reddit how they had this ridiculous rule that everyone is still expected to come into work and show up on time especially in bad weather when the roads are bad. So everyone would try and rush into work to be on time and there were accidents on the way and a couple people died so they got sued by the families and now the whole plant would shut down in bad weather. Sometimes lawsuits are legitimate. If they force their workers to do something dangerous or else they get a consequence or lose their job especially if bad weather makes it unpredictable how long it will take for you to get to work, a lawsuit is reasonable if there were deaths or injuries. Saying to just leave early is unreasonable too because you can still be late to work and you never know if there will be gridlocks or lot of traffic because everyone is going slow. Where I live, it's very hard to get anywhere in snow because of gridlocks made by cars and cars get stuck on the roads because of the ice and they don't sand them here to create traction for the tires. I do not feel comfortable driving in my area when there is snow because of collisions and crashes that happen and getting stuck and being trapped on the road for hours. So I probably would sue if my work place tried to make me do something dangerous and it cost me my car or if I got injured. And I would only be suing to pay for the damage they caused me and the stress and anxiety and if I needed therapy for that trauma, I could use the money from that lawsuit I get top pay for my therapies so it wouldn't be all about the money and I could use the money to get a new car if it got totaled since I need a car to take my kid to school and back. Plus it would cover for all the work days I have had to miss to make up for our income.


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