Is our legal system really this out of touch????

[Raceman]

Or is all this just somebody's fiction?

The Stella Awards!

>Stella Liebeck is the 81 year old lady who spilled coffee on herself and
>sued McDonalds. This case inspired an annual award - The "Stella" Award-
>for the most frivolous lawsuit in the U.S. The following are this year's
>candidates:
>
>1. January 2000:
>Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her
>peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running
>inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably
>surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little brat was Ms.
>Robertson's son.
>
>2. June 1998:
>A 19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 & medical expenses
>when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman
>apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car, when he
>was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
>
>3. October 1998:
>A Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had just
>finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage
>door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He
>couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and
>garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation. Mr.
>Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on
>a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the
>homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental
>anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars.
>
>4. October 1999:
>Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas was awarded $14,500 & medical
>expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's
>beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced-in yard. The award
>was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a
>little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it repeatedly
>with a pellet gun.
>
>5. May 2000:
>A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster,
>Pennsylvania $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her
>coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her
>boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
>
>6. December 1997:
>Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued the owner of a
>nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to
>the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms
>Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid
>paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
>
>And the winner is:
>
>Mr Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City. In November 2000 Mr. Grazinski
>purchased a brand new 32 foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home,
>having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly
>left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee.
>Not surprisingly the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr
>Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he
>couldn't actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnie.
>(Winnebago actually changed their handbooks on the back of this court
>case, just in case there are any other complete morons buying their
>vehicles.)
>

[Georgia Boy]

as much as I hate to say it the world is full of dumb****s! the only people more ignorant than the ones getting hurt are the ones who go along with them and help them get paid, more people in the world today are sorry and incompetent and are only looking for a free ride, and take the first chance they have regardless of how stupid it may be. kind of makes you wonder about the person you meet on the highway or passing you in the river channel doesn't it. not only do we have to look after ourselves, but have to look after everyone else in the process! to bad people are not born with common sense or a little sense of pride and what is right anymore!

[Greg Moss]

I can not believe a Judge would even let cases like that in a court room! the judges are to blame for **** like that makeing it to court and costing the tax payers money to try.Trying cases like that is a waste of mine and yours money. How about the waste of time having to sit on that kind of jury.

[Georgia Boy]

and not sure about you, but I don't consider 15 bucks a day(what i got for jury duty last time) to be a fair honest days wage either.

[Charlie M]

I heard so much about reforms about people paying for the cort costs in lost law suits................Who sould really be paying for the costs the lawyers.........the sueing party............shouldn't people be able to counter sue for mental anguish about being the laughing stock of these lost lawsuits. All of these lost lawsuits above, completly redicilous, who's the judges in these cases.............they need a child sicologist......someone who can explain reality to them.

[Charlie M]

Dennis Miller is a bit coarse for a lot of people, but he has a good commentary

here I think.

"Isn't it great we live in a country where a federal appeals court can declare
the Pledge of Allegiance
unconstitutional because the words "under God" are a violation of separation of

church and state? Well, you know
something, your honors: following that logic, wouldn't the fact that you were
sworn in with your hand on a Bible
render you unemployed? Or maybe we should respond by withholding your
obviously unconstitutional "In God we
trust" paychecks, huh? Or why don't we just change the phrase to "One nation
under a crushing blanket of overly
sensitive political correctness?"

If you haven't heard, Michael Newdow, a 49-year old atheist, created a media
sensation this week after bringing a
lawsuit on behalf of his 8-year old daughter. Well, Mikey, you did a great job

of protecting your kid, didn't
ya? Put her in the middle of this jingoistic maelstrom. Yeah, you are the dad

of the year. Why don't you pick
your trophy up when it's safe to come out of hiding?

By the way, to all the people out there making death threats against this man
and his daughter: if God had wanted
you to kill in His name, you'd be living in the Middle East, not the Midwest.

Well, anyway, it's good to know that all children are now guaranteed the right
to come into their classroom in the
morning and burn the flag, as long as they don't salute it.

You know folks, I haven't quite figured out the math on this one yet, but I
think the aggrieved minority in this
culture now is the majority.

And, by the way, to the two judges who authored this fiasco: instead of church

and state, maybe you should be
worried about the separation of your head and your butt."

Dennis Miller

I got sent this mail and thought it showed how out of touch the leagal system is.

[Tom D.]

I was triming my finger nails the other day and got this hang nail. You think I got a chance at a millon or so ? It hurts like hell and I think I can get a doctors excuse to back me up. What do you think?

That's the problem everboby is suie happy. I think all dumbass cases like these should go before the honorable Judge (George) Carlin if he says OK then let it go to court.
:D

[crazy horse]

I think the Eagles said it best, Kill all the lawyers,Kill them all tonight.

[Steven]

i like the way crazy horse thinks. start with bankruptcy lawyers first. poke there eyes out with ice picks and let the fireants do the rest. steven

[GeoL]

Those Stella awards posted by Raceman are a Hoax.
There is no evidence of these events. See:
Urban Legends:
Origins: This "and you wonder what's wrong with the world today?" whinge appeared on the Internet in May 2001. All of the entries in the list are fabrications -- a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to turn up anything, as did a search for each law case.

The earliest version concluded with a seventh item that has since been snipped away, likely after someone noticed it was the venerable microwaved poodle legend. Its inclusion would have immediately called into question the truthfulness of the other six cases for any number of folks familiar with urban legends. The remaining six were still false, but they weren't as obviously false as the following poodle tale and thus wouldn't have set the alarm bells ringing:

Just more caucau to sort thru.
Geo

[steve]

Do you have any idea where 1/2 the stories on the net come from? Some moron sitting at his desk all day making them up and circulating them. It wastes all of our valuable time just like viruses. Just like a lot of the ads on the net do too.
We need to go back to the days when fresh air and actual events in life affected us more then hear say and key boards. Why do you think the stock market is the way it is? People believe anything thats written down any more. People go to church every Sun and drop money in the till just to hear that they will burn in hell , a teaching thats not found even found in the Bible. Ever heard of Dante' or Plato?
How about trying pyramid marketing , thats the answer to all the worlds problems.
Good grief , there are enough REAL things the legal system does that are stupid. We don't need fake stories!!!!!!!!!
Whats wrong with investigating and trying things yourself, letting experience of people you actually know, experience you have had , truth and fact be the teacher rather then stories that sensationalize ( is that the word? ) .

Now go out and try some hi speed passes and have some fun !!!!

[GeoL]

hehehe, just let it out, Steve.
Geo

[JIMK]

there is actually a guy here that makes his money with law suits. one was sueing food lion because the automatic door opener was too slow and he walked into it. $100,000 it is a crying shame,we have to work our asses off just to make ends meet and these kinds of lazy asses get away with stuff like this.Jim King

[Georgia Boy]

the one about the women sueing Mcdonalds over her spilt coffee in her lap was surely a case, I saw it on the news, and have heard it mentioned on the radio several times. Also I heard the one about the guy and the motor home one of our local radio station talked about during there "stupid people" segments. not sure on the rest, but i have hear those two before.

[cobra147]

What about that fat slob POS that is suing McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's for making him fat? That was on the news last week.

At least the members of this board think with some "common sense". Want some interesting reading from some that will make you explode?
This is from the cobra forum I am part of http://www.ffcobra.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005139;p=2

[BarryStrawn]

McDonalds lost their hot coffee case because they used to keep it at 185 degrees so it wouldn't go stale for several hours. Simply unreasonable to serve it that hot. Of course the amount of the damages in the lawsuit was also ridiculous. I put a lot of the problem with jury awards down most of the public having been screwed over by insurance companies for so long that they just stick it to em when they get the chance.

[Hack02]

I thought the Seinfeld episode where Kramer was sueing the coffee company for the hot coffee was funny as hec. I liked Kramers lawyer, was his name Johnny? Anyway, it kind of makes you wonder about taking people out in your boat, the amount of responsibility you assume. By the way Geol, I was enjoying this thread until you busted my bubble by revealing the truth about the urban legend lawsuits and I have suffered mental anguish so my oriental attorney, aptly named Illsue, will be in touch with you. See ya on Sinclair maybe- Hack.

[Techno]

The coffee thing is a real and reasonable case. The coffee wasn't kept at 185 but was over microwaved. It was nuked to re-heat it. The coffee was much hotter than it should be. Since water can store energy it wasn't a temperture thing but the energy deal. At 212* water doesn't boil, it requires an additional 300+ calories to get it to boil Once this amount of energy is added the water then boils at 212*

It caused 2nd degree burns in her lap. I don't know how hot you think coffee should be but you shouldn't get that kind of burn from it. Since its 2nd degree burns and they covered a pretty large skin area and its location imagine the pain from this and the time it took to heal. And how your life was restricted while it healed. It was incompetence.



There is a caution that is going around from nuking water!

If it hasn't happened to you. Be carefull when heating water in a clean cup. The water won't boil until it has something to form bubbles on. There has been reported cases of it flashing off when coffee or a spoon was added. I've seen it super convert to boiling water but never flash out in a steam explosion. I did break a cup once which could have been just as bad. Even the flash conversion to boiling was pretty energetic and could have sprayed - maybe.

I have to agree though that all these stupid cases are awarded by someone- a jury and have to wonder why they came to that award. A burgler suing because he was shot in someones house kind of thing. I would sue the burgler since I would no longer feel secure in my own house. - Why don't these people sue the idiots in return? They usually have a better case than the original!

[cobra147]

If you sued the scumbag burgular, all you would be doing is wasting your own money. Besides, the scumbag ambulance-chasing lawyer won't take your case because the "pockets" on the other side (burgular) aren't "deep enough."

It's all about where they can make a quick buck. Who in their right mind would think the burgular could have a case? Exactly, no one with a conscience.

[Techno]

The idea is if he sued you for damages you sue him back. If you have to pay you end up getting your money back.
The lawyer costs would be neccessary if the amount was large, it would be worth it.