Comments on: Word of the Day: Litigious http://joehankin.com/blog/2007/08/word-of-the-day-litigious/ Now 30% Less Fun! Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:19:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Wendy http://joehankin.com/blog/2007/08/word-of-the-day-litigious/comment-page-1/#comment-44 Wendy Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:24:00 +0000 http://joehankin.com/blog/?p=61#comment-44 LOL.... Sorry I can't get the mental picture of someone kicking the bucket over a towel dispenser. Can you imagine his grave stone?!?<br/><br/>Here lies Jack we knew him well. Damn those towel dispensers! LOL…. Sorry I can’t get the mental picture of someone kicking the bucket over a towel dispenser. Can you imagine his grave stone?!?

Here lies Jack we knew him well. Damn those towel dispensers!

]]> By: Joe http://joehankin.com/blog/2007/08/word-of-the-day-litigious/comment-page-1/#comment-43 Joe Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:34:00 +0000 http://joehankin.com/blog/?p=61#comment-43 There are two interconnected but separate elements to what's referred to as "frivolous" litigation: first, the claim itself, and its level of spuriousness (and yes, I would agree that the absurd heat of the McD's coffee lessons the frivolity of the woman's claim compared to, say, someone who burned himself because there was no sign warning him that bronze statues sitting in the sun get hot); and second, the outlandishness of the jury award, which indirectly encourages frivolous litigation by encouraging a lottery-winner mentality. <br/><br/>The other famous case which I didn't cite in this post is <i>BMW v. Gore</i>, 517 U.S. 559 (1996), in which a BMW buyer discovered his "new" car had been repainted. He sued for $4,000 and was awarded $4 million in punitive damages, which led to the Supreme Court limiting possible jury awards. It's that kind of award which makes companies fearful of liability and thus causes these disclaimers -- even if there has been no prior frivolous suit to cue the disclaimer. (By the same token, I'm sure somebody in the legal department at Germ-Infested Towel Dispensers, Ltd. invented, through persistence and wild imagination, a scenario in which someone misused the product and subsequently kicked the bucket and figured, "well, might as well throw that one in there too.") There are two interconnected but separate elements to what’s referred to as “frivolous” litigation: first, the claim itself, and its level of spuriousness (and yes, I would agree that the absurd heat of the McD’s coffee lessons the frivolity of the woman’s claim compared to, say, someone who burned himself because there was no sign warning him that bronze statues sitting in the sun get hot); and second, the outlandishness of the jury award, which indirectly encourages frivolous litigation by encouraging a lottery-winner mentality.

The other famous case which I didn’t cite in this post is BMW v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996), in which a BMW buyer discovered his “new” car had been repainted. He sued for $4,000 and was awarded $4 million in punitive damages, which led to the Supreme Court limiting possible jury awards. It’s that kind of award which makes companies fearful of liability and thus causes these disclaimers — even if there has been no prior frivolous suit to cue the disclaimer. (By the same token, I’m sure somebody in the legal department at Germ-Infested Towel Dispensers, Ltd. invented, through persistence and wild imagination, a scenario in which someone misused the product and subsequently kicked the bucket and figured, “well, might as well throw that one in there too.”)

]]> By: Seb http://joehankin.com/blog/2007/08/word-of-the-day-litigious/comment-page-1/#comment-42 Seb Sat, 15 Sep 2007 09:27:00 +0000 http://joehankin.com/blog/?p=61#comment-42 My personal favourite was the warning chiseled into the side plate of those old cloth-towel-dispenser hand-dryers (you know, it was a long feed of dishtowel and clanked loudly)...<br/><br/>"Misuse of product can result in injury <b>or death</b>."<br/><br/>'Cuz that means some motherfucker went so far as to punch his own clock on the damn thing. (Otherwise, why not just warn against the potential bodily harm?) I just don't even see how that's physically possible. Ah, the triumph of the human spirit!<br/><br/>By the way, do you think the"frivolity" of the McDonald's coffee case is mitigated by the fact that the woman in question initially only asked for McD's to cover the medical cost ($8000) of the skin grafts she needed because the coffee was so hot it <b>melted</b> her epidermis? My personal favourite was the warning chiseled into the side plate of those old cloth-towel-dispenser hand-dryers (you know, it was a long feed of dishtowel and clanked loudly)…

“Misuse of product can result in injury or death.”

‘Cuz that means some motherfucker went so far as to punch his own clock on the damn thing. (Otherwise, why not just warn against the potential bodily harm?) I just don’t even see how that’s physically possible. Ah, the triumph of the human spirit!

By the way, do you think the”frivolity” of the McDonald’s coffee case is mitigated by the fact that the woman in question initially only asked for McD’s to cover the medical cost ($8000) of the skin grafts she needed because the coffee was so hot it melted her epidermis?

]]> By: Wendy http://joehankin.com/blog/2007/08/word-of-the-day-litigious/comment-page-1/#comment-40 Wendy Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:52:00 +0000 http://joehankin.com/blog/?p=61#comment-40 "Do not blow dry your hair while in the shower."<br/><br/>On kids cough meds. "Do not drive heavy machinary."<br/><br/>My fav.... "Cards in this game do not really talk like on tv." "This Plant is not meant to be eaten. Please don't eat plant." "Wand really doesn't do spells." “Do not blow dry your hair while in the shower.”

On kids cough meds. “Do not drive heavy machinary.”

My fav…. “Cards in this game do not really talk like on tv.” “This Plant is not meant to be eaten. Please don’t eat plant.” “Wand really doesn’t do spells.”

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