Part 1 – Lawsuits
I have heard a lot about how people who do stupid things get to sue big companies when they really should have been added to The Darwin Award lists. Many of these cases end up being twisted by the public and made to look ridiculous, and while some of these do remain quite ridiculous, they are not as they seem. Here is an example of a case I hear regularly when somebody wants to bring up their negative opinion of the US court system.
The McDonald’s hot coffee incident – Known as Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants is really a case about how McDonald’s was serving their coffee 40 degrees too hot at 180 °F (82 °C), which can cause third degree burns in a matter of seconds. Even though Liebeck, 79 at the time, had the coffee between her legs when the lid came off and burned her, the court found her only 20% responsible. There were some 700 related cases from 1982 to 1992.
Some people I have talked to do not know much about this case and therefore some believe it to be an urban myth. This case is still quite controversial and many will argue that the burn could have been prevented if she had held the cup instead. In my opnion it would not matter if she held the cup or not, if the lid came off and if the coffee were a scalding 180 °F, you would get the same result. In the end McDonald’s decided to lower their brewing temperature and Liebeck was awarded $160,000 in damages as these related to most of the medical costs after had skin grafts and debridement treatments.
There are a few other interesting cases such as people getting injured, sometimes severely, after tripping on a faulty sidwalk. These I compare to potholes on major roads. Then there are far more ridiculous cases, usually related to companies protecting their trademarks and patents. A good example of this would be the Monster Cable vs Monster Mini Golf lawsuit in 2006, or the Monster Cable vs Blue Jeans Cable and dozens of others. Some companies are just giant assholes.
Some lawsuits are quite scary, and the deregulations made lately by the Bush Administration are going to throw some peoples lives into legal hell.
I could have written about thousands of lawsuits and instead focused on what seemed to be corrupted, and what is corrupted. These are simple examples, not huge class action legal hell holes or celebrity murders. Now it is time to ask, will lawsuits contribute to the end of the world? My opinion is no. The more lawsuits the better. This means that people are out there screaming to be heard, some trying to be honest, and a natural cycle in our capitalist world. When the lawsuits dwindle down to very few, this is when it is time to be afraid. When people cannot protect themselves from companies and vice versa, and when corporations do not have the right to sue each other, then you know there is something far more terrifying to worry about.