I’m going to have much much more to say about this case, but for now, let us simply note that a jury found for the plaintiff in a lawsuit against McDonald’s over her victimization by a perverted prank phone call, and awarded $6.1 million; we mentioned the incident in the comments to this lengthy September 2006 discussion of a similar lawsuit that was thrown out of court, and first noted the potential for litigation in April 2004, days before the actual incident took place in this suit.
What the press coverage to date has not mentioned is that the person who almost certainly perpetrated the incident was acquitted after the Kentucky case fell apart because the criminal defense attorney was able to impeach the witnesses by noting their financial stakes in the civil litigation decided today. Thus, thanks to our civil litigation system’s quest for the deep pocket, the guilty party went free and a tertiary innocent victim got hit with damages. Which is precisely why it’s a misnomer when trial lawyers rename themselves associations for “justice.”
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The manager who actually oversaw what happened to the girl received a $1.1 million verdict today as well.
Simply incredible.
Perhaps we should understand WHY verdicts like this are handed down by a supposedly *intelligent* and impartial jury? Perhaps it’s because the only people that can actually SIT on a jury for a few months are the unemployed or the elderly. My employer wasn’t going to pay me for the time off, so why BE on the jury… therefore, you have juries awarding damages because it makes them feel like they’re GIVING free money away.. rather than making intelligent decisions.
The manager was previously convicted for unlawful imprisonment in the matter. Doesn’t that have any relevance here? How can she get a judgement of over $1 mil? Isn’t it illegal for someone to profit off of their crime? Somebody please help me out here.
I’d let Nurse Ratched give me a public colonoscopy for half of that judgment. This is ridiculous.