cK-Gunslinger's Journal: RE: Crazy women suing McDonalds for Umpteen-Billion Dollars

Sigh:

I'm pretty tired of the standard comment I see almost everyday about "this is the country that will let someone sue a restaurant for millions of dollars because her coffee was hot." Please people, at least try to learn a little about a subject before you open your mouths.

Here's a nice site that explains some of the details of this "frivolous" case.

In short, here are some quick facts:

- The woman, Stella Liebeck, was *not* driving the car at the time
    (The car was not even in motion at the time of the spill)
- Lieback received 3rd degree burns on 6% of her body
    (check out the conditions for 3rd degree burns - they are pretty gruesome)
- Lieback was hospitalized for 8 days
- Lieback received numerous skin grafts
- Lieback tried to settle for $20,000 (McDonald's refused)
- McDonald's had 700 reported incidents of burns (some just as severe)
- A manager testified that the coffee was "not fit for consumption" at the temperature it was served
- Liquids at 180 degrees cause 3rd degree burns in 2-7 seconds.
- Liquids at 155 degrees are exponentially less damaging
- Lieback was awarded $160,000 in compensatory damages
- Lieback was awarded $480,000 in punitive damages

In short, this was not a typical, frivolous lawsuit. It was a valid case against a company that willfully sold a product to a customer that was unnecessarily dangerous, despite numerous previous complaints.

Get your facts straight, people.

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Update:

Here I will begin listing some relevant threads, as this topic seems to rear its head very often here...

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=89905&cid=7764471

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=90194&cid=7785847