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I read about this case on Ars Technica. According to the plaintiff herself, the lawsuit is stupid. However, hearing from her side of the story only, Best Buy has been giving her the runaround and being utterly uncooperative, as well as either woefully uninformed or outright lying about the status of her laptop. She said that this was the only way to get them to do the right thing. Whether or not I agree with her, I’m not sure. But this certainly seems to be effective.

If a lost pair of pants was worth $54 million, then I guess a lost laptop computer should be worth at least as much!

Walter beat me to this story. Campbell has a legitimate legal claim against Best Buy for losing her laptop, as well as an appalling tale of customer service given the number of times Best Buy lied to her. (Whether Best Buy is, as Campbell claims, responsible for the damages caused by Campbell failing to back up her hard drive is more than a little questionable, however.) But it’s discouraging to see people learning that bringing a frivolous claim will create publicity, and the media playing along.

I fail to see what’s frivilous about this lawsuit. If what the article states is true then I don’t blame her one bit. I’ll agree that her pictures and other information should have been backed up, but Best Buy is responsible for the security of the information on her hard drive. If it takes a $54 million lawsuit to get Best Buy’s attention then so be it. Why didn’t they come out and admit that her laptop was missing, instead of giving her a runaround? Compairing this to the missing pants lawsuit is like compairing apples and oranges. Her personal information is still unaccounted for and has the potential to cause her great trouble and expense, not to mention the possibility of litigation against her for fraud committed by someone using her identity.

Best Buy, while certainly guilty of poor customer service for dragging its feet, has already offered to compensate Campbell for the value of the laptop and then some. Campbell claims to seek an additional $53.997 million and hold Best Buy liable for the loss of the data and that number is surely frivolous, and the claim is one I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for either.

Example: if I write a novel, don’t back it up, give my laptop with the novel to Best Buy, and Best Buy loses the laptop, can I claim that the novel was worth $100 million?

I’m pretty sure the Best Buy contract forces customers to waive any liability for the contents of hard drives brought in for repair. The computer manufacturer and the HD manufacturer require such a waiver, so why not someone who only sells or repairs them?

Example: if I write a novel, don’t back it up, give my laptop with the novel to Best Buy, and Best Buy loses the laptop, can I claim that the novel was worth $100 million?

If you leave your car at a service station for an oil change, and the car is lost or destroyed because of the actions of the service station, should you only be compensated for the price of the oil change?

If you write a novel that is published, and I get a file of the novel, does that mean that I can distribute it freely as you seem to be saying that all data has no value to the individual and no value on the open market.

I’m pretty sure the Best Buy contract forces customers to waive any liability for the contents of hard drives brought in for repair.

True. That is the waiver that is signed if work is required on the hard drive. In this case, the on / off switch was being replaced. There was no work being done on the hard drive.

There is also a difference between the hard drive being returned with or without the data and the hard drive being lost with the data on it. In the first case, the hard drive loses the data into an electronic black hole. In the second case, there is no evidence that the data was destroyed, and the woman is incurring costs because of that.

Fifty four million is too much money for this, but it took that amount to get Best Buy to respond in a reasonable manner for their ineptitude and false statements.

This lady is one of the reasons the legal system in our country is so screwed up. Ridiculous lawsuits like this one tie up the courts and take time away from real issues. I’m not sure how you make it through life being so stupid but this lady does it everyday. This is the reason the law needs to be change to make the plantiff pay all costs for lawsuits that are found to have no legal standing.

I do agree that best buy is wrong in the way they’ve handled this but in all honesty….54 million, gimme a break. This is just an example of a lazy gold digger who is trying to get some money that she doesn’t deserve. Best buy should sue her to recover all of their legal costs after they beat this lawsuit, and the lawyer who filed this motion should be disbarred.

As a society we’re pathetic for letting this kind of stuff happen, and they say were getting smarter everyday….hah

A ridiculous damage claim does not a frivilous lawsuit make. If best buy has a liability and has not tried to resolve it in good faith, then the suit is appropriate. The damages claim is inappropriate, but not the suit itself. This of course presumes best buy was negligent, if not then they will have no liability.

A ridiculous damage claim does not a frivilous lawsuit make.

No one said “frivolous lawsuit.” They said “frivolous claim.” The $54 million claim is frivolous (or, as you put it, inappropriate).

$54 million isn’t a serious number; it’s effectively a demand for Best Buy to settle.

“You lost my fucking laptop, I have a case, and you just might pay $54 million if the right jury shows up. I want revenge, and a LOT more money than you offered me, assholes. Fork it over.”