i am sorry. jus in which type of situation should we use it???

sorry.. i went to check the dictionary on this word and this is what i found:
feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity.
feeling regret? you apologise when u felt a ting of regret in something you do.. does it always work? maybe it will work if the person is still alive and a person u still can talk to.. what if.. u knock down a person in a car accident and the person is dead and u don have the chance to say 'i am sorry'. and what if you were being charged for something you had done wrong and u were truly sincerely apologetic about it, will the judge jus let you go scot-free? what is the meaning of saying it in this kind of situation then? and in this kind of Important situation and sorry jus doesn't work.. then just in what kind of situation should the sentence 'i am sorry' work?

maybe, if u bump into somebody accidentally, and u say 'i am sorry', do u truly sincerely mean it? 'i am sorry' this sentence has become such a common sentence that i feel that it actually lost its true meaning. the only time i can say its meaning is true when u say it to parents.. for me.. i can easily say i am sorry to almost anybody and everybody.. but not to my parents.. its always the harddest to say it to them.. thus, i wrote in on paper to them to say i am sorry.. though its not as sincere.. but the meaning is still there.

jus last week, and i used 'i am sorry' or 'sorry' jus so quite often.. for projects, i said 'i am sorry' because i did not really help out much. isaid 'sorry' for being late for class. i said 'i am sorry' to kelin for stepping on her shoes.. and i din said it onli once but quite a few times. i said 'sorry' to guowen for my negligence, but i onli said it once. i said 'sorry' for not being interested in someone's topic. i said 'sorry' times and again. but.. who knows exactly which one contains the real meaning inside. i tried to express my true meaning of apologetic to every sorry i used. but can anybody sense my true meaning in them.. i don know.. but at least, i know that i tried to express my true meaning of feeling apologetic.

and after dscussing this topic with josh, i came to realised that.. i seems to feel that some times when people say sry to other people, their 'sorry' is jus a way to get away fom things. but i will still feel the sense of apologetic, at least from my friends. maybe its a sense of fear like wad josh says, when u cant forgive yourself,u feared that people do not forgive you either when in actual fact, they did.

at the end of the day, i just feel that i am thinkng a little bit too much.. emo-ing? don think so.. jus wan to have a say.. maybe.. love, life and laughter are really the magnet to miracles ( a quote from ben&jerry).. maybe its jus the love and care that u give, shows everything.