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Jul 18, 2007 -- How to live happily in a litigious culture

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you're probably familiar with the name Roy L. Pearson. He's the judge who sued a Washington, D.C., dry cleaner for $54 million when a pair of pants from his $1,000 suit went missing. Pearson lost his case in late June, but his outrageous request for $54 million created media frenzy fed by fear about lawsuit-happy people abusing our legal system. The whole episode really reminded Clark about a $2 million lawsuit McDonald's faced when a woman sued them for being burned by hot coffee. Once again, the plaintiff lost in that case, but people still live in fear of being sued at the drop of a hat. Many folks have asked Clark if he's ever been sued himself. The reality is that Clark once did have a legal tussle with a politician he referred to as a crook on air. The suit was thrown out in summary judgment, but Clark incurred $31,000 in legal defense fees. Meanwhile, that politician is now in prison for his wrongdoing. But that was only one suit that Clark faced in 20 years as a high-profile consumer advocate. So while you shouldn't do dumb things in your daily life to attract lawsuits, you also shouldn't worry excessively about being sued. The fear of lawsuits is often greater than the reality of them. And as Clark says, "Truth is the greatest defense."

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What others are saying

  • McDonald's Coffee Case
    People hear "she spilled coffee on herself and sued for millions" and associate "coffee" with what comes out of their coffee machine in the morning, so they think the woman overreacted. It's not quite so simple. The woman didn't just "burn herself with hot coffee" - this isn't your Mr. Coffee, this is near-boiling coffee. She was badly scalded, she had to get skin grafts, she had tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills. The case wasn't "McD served me hot coffee" - McD served her coffee that was dangerously TOO hot, even AFTER they had been repeatedly warned that the coffee was dangerous and causing problems.

    McD chose not reduce the temperature of their coffee for 2 reasons:
    1. the average coffee customer bought coffee in the drive through and took the coffee to work. If McD served coffee that was immediately safe to drink, the average customer would have luke-warm coffee by the time they got to work; and
    2. Reducing the temperature of the coffee would have reduced the aroma profile in the store - hot coffee smells good and has a small but measurable effect on breakfast sales.

    Reducing coffee temperature a mere 10-15 degrees would have made the coffee safe(r) - but it would have cut into profits, so despite repeated complaints and warnings, McD kept the coffee too hot. So yes, she spilled coffee on herself - but if the coffee had been a safer temperature, she could have complained about her dry cleaning bill, rather than spend painful months recovering from skin grafts.
  • Litigation Fear
    The fear of (ridiculous)lawsuits is precisely the problem. We should not be making decisions based on this. The McDonald's case was won by the woman but later reduced to "only" $200,000. And it was her own fault! Those who bring frivolous lawsuits and those who plaintiffs who lose should pay the legal bills of those who are the real victims of litiguousness.
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