Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Update: Judge reduces FedEx harassment award

Updating our Jun. 5 post: noting that the conduct sued over “was mostly just offensive name-calling,” a judge in Alameda County, Calif. last month reduced the damages in two Lebanese-American men’s harassment-on-the-job lawsuit against Federal Express from an eye-popping $61 million to a mere $12.4 million. The latter number is presumably not as unreasonable even […]

Updating our Jun. 5 post: noting that the conduct sued over “was mostly just offensive name-calling,” a judge in Alameda County, Calif. last month reduced the damages in two Lebanese-American men’s harassment-on-the-job lawsuit against Federal Express from an eye-popping $61 million to a mere $12.4 million. The latter number is presumably not as unreasonable even if it, too, might give off an air of having been pulled from a hat (Matthew Hirsch, “Calif. Judge Slashes $61 Million FedEx Verdict”, The Recorder, Sept. 14).

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4 Comments

  • $40,000 a year for 40 years comes to $1,600,000. How can someone be awarded nearly eight life-times of earnings for having his fealings hurt?
    There were two, so its nearly four life-times of earnings.

    My grandmother worked hard at minimum wage as a widow to support herself and four children.

  • As several people pointed out, for that kind of money, you’d have a line of people voluntering to help you insult thmselves.

    Dropping the reward like that might make a tiny dent in the number of people in that line, but that’s about it.

    • By Deoxy

  • If that’s the reward for tollerating less than perfect job satisfaction then sign me up…

    • By nevins

  • We are often told that “diversity” enhances business performance, the bottom line and the economy in general. But the more we elevate “diversity” to a religion and discrimination lawsuits to one of its sacraments, the more the costs would appear to pile up. While not excusing boorish behavior in the workplace, if “diversity” were truly the godsend promised, it would be up and functioning smoothly without the need for endless litigation. But once people get religion, it seems, rational criticism becomes heresy.