You stated this very well Eric. I've written on the subject of the tort deformers, Madison Avenue and those who misuse the judicial system. Just claiming lawsuits are all frivolous is itself a frivolous claim. Jurors who take this attitude to the jury box are being un-American. Our system of civil justice has worked well throughout the history of this country. What is not working well is a corporate culture that entices people to set aside their common sense to improve the bottom line of a system based purely on corporate profit. Somewhere in Madison Avenue's message corporate greed had taken a front row seat to common sense and decency. The McDonald's verdict was correct, the Judge was wrong for taking part of it away. McDonald's attitude was abrasive, insulting to the jury and to the Plaintiff. Until people understand the facts of that case they shouldn't be so quick to criticize the jury verdict. Madison Avenue continues to spin the real issue in that case. It wasn't that the coffee was just hot, hell that's what Mrs. Liebeck asked for, hot coffee. It was how hot the coffee was served. McDonalds own expert testified the coffee was so hot it couldn't be consumed, thus making it inedible.
Remember that we can all be that Plaintiff who has the one unplanned mishap ending up sitting in a court room asking to be treated fairly. Not everyone who uses the civil justice system and asks for damages can be a fraud. Nor can their claims all be frivolous. What is frivolous though are the assertions by Corporate America for immunity from responsibility. When did it become an American right to plead for freedom from responsibility? If you want our children to mature and to develop responsible values, then stop sending mixed messages, like corporate America (Wall Street and drug companies for a start) have the right to lie, cheat, steal, maim and kill those they pledge to serve and sell too. A few years ago federal preemption for drug companies would never have been proposed. Corporate America thinks the general public is dumb and they are lining up at the tort-deform trough like pigs in a sty. You don't have to care about the poor schmuck who took the tainted drugs until it's your breadwinner whose lying in the morgue. Then you make your way to the nearest trial lawyer and plead how your case is somehow different then all the rest, and you just didn't know what or who you were voting for when you voted in a tort deformer. Wake up folks you're just as vulnerable as that person who sits in the court room asking for justice and who you stare at assuming all the while he/she must be a fraud. What you've forgotten is that you're staring at your own future. Steve Lombardi, desmoines.injuryboard.com