- “Battle of the tort reform flicks”: trial-bar-backed “Hot Coffee” documentary said to be more entertaining than U.S. Chamber-backed “InJustice” [TortsProf, Abnormal Use, Daily Caller, Frank/PoL, Above the Law, Fisher, LNL] Memo to liberal studio heads: c’mon, now’s the time to greenlight more business-bashing flicks [Alyssa Rosenberg, TP]
- Interlock makers join forces with MADD to lobby for new federal DUI mandates [Luke Rosiak, Wash Times] More: Greenfield.
- Consumer found liable after posting gripes about driveway contractor on Craigslist [Minneapolis Star-Tribune] P.S.: Default judgment, not merits [h/t ABA Journal]
- Angelos law firm obtains $1 billion+ punitive award in Exxon Baltimore gasoline leak case, bringing total to $1.5 billion+ [AP, earlier]
- Taiwan: “Jail Time (And $7000 Fine) for Saying a Restaurant’s Dishes Were ‘Too Salty'” [Volokh]
- Headed for SCOTUS? Sixth Circuit panel strikes down Michigan law banning discrimination in higher ed admissions and other state activities [Gail Heriot, Daily Caller; Hans Bader, CEI]
- Court in British Columbia includes C$30,000 in damage award for injury plaintiff’s purchase of medical marijuana for pain management [Erik Magraken]
Filed under: Baltimore, Canada, Craigslist, illegal drugs, jackpot justice, MADD, oil industry, restaurant critics, Sixth Circuit
2 Comments
MADD is a non-profit my ass.
A belated comment on the McDonald’s hot coffee case:
From WO’s post at
http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/hot-coffee-documentary-hbo-reviewed/#comments
>I’m pretty sure no groups critical of the Liebeck award ever did a comparable press push; and the McDonald’s company itself, so far as I know, never chose to cooperate with commentators who might be sympathetic to its legal case.
[end of quote]
Though sympathetic to tort reform, I can understand why McDonald’s does not want to revisit this case. The $2.7 million punitive damages to force them to cool their coffee to the temperature of dishwater was out of line. But some of the arguments that it was *all* the plaintiff’s fault remind me of Whitaker Chambers’s notorious paraphrase of Atlas Shrugged, “To a gas chamber — go!”
The extraordinary burns that the plaintiff got made her case an “exception that proves the rule,” distinct from the usual whiners and hustlers seeking big payoffs for minor injuries. For a big company, it is sometimes best to pay to make bad publicity go away.
Although the plaintiff’s attorney standard of 135-140 degrees (or at most 155 degrees) has not been adopted, I believe the current standards for Starbucks and McDonalds are a bit lower than the 193 degrees cited in this case. (ON the other hand, when I make tea at home, I always boil the water.)
It might make sense to serve car customers, subject to extra spill hazards, at a somewhat lower temperature than counter customers.
I understand the cups used to serve car sustomers have been redesigned to make spills less likely.