Oh God, not the McDonald's analogy again! This is one of the great urban myths, and a better example of the lousy media which ultimately never tells the whole story.
Ironically, there are 100s of examples of frivolous suits ( I have defended dozens over the years), but the infamous McDonald's suit is not one of the better ones, but the one everyone points to. The 79 yr old woman did NOT get " millions" from McDonalds. By way of background the evidence showed they were at the time serving extremely hot coffee ,(they have since lowered temp) she spilled it in her groin area, spent 8 days in the hospital with 3rd degree burns over 6% of body and offered to settle for her med costs.
The case proceeded (rightly or wrongly) to trial with a jury finding Mac 80% at fault and the woman 20% at fault, thus her $200,000 award was reduced to $160k. The jury also awarded----and this is where our system is out of control $2.9M in punitive damages, but the Judge reduced that amount to $480K and it was settled on appeal, I suspect for much less than that. I would guess that once her lawyers, experts etc were paid and expenses were paid she saw less than 6 figures. It was a dumb lawsuit all the way around, but every day much more ridiculous ones are filed.
The really irksome cases that are being trotted out against Mac and others are the obesity cases ie " I ate your food and got fat" If they start winning those it is the end of civilization as we know it.
I dont care how hurt he got, if he was DUI, HE DESERVED IT (he deserved much worse actually).
