Failure™ Magazine

And Justice For All?

Debunking the myth of lawsuit abuse.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Business

What can be done to get Americans to understand that lawsuits offer more than just the chance to obtain justice—they also provide the opportunity to shine a light on the behavior of private institutions?
That’s a good question. There’s not really an organized constituency for the courts. You have the trial lawyers, but people tend to discount them because they have a financial motive. Anytime they try to come to the defense of the civil justice system, critics say, “Oh, they are just looking to line their own pockets.” So their message is a little bit colored by self-interest—even though their interests may align perfectly with the average citizen. There isn’t really anybody else on their side except for a few consumer groups, but the consumer groups don’t have any money. So it’s a very uneven playing field. I don’t really know the answer. I guess they could buy my book [laughs].

Is support for tort reform part of a larger overall problem—that Americans are increasingly willing to give up their constitutional rights?
I don’t believe they think much about it. It’s funny because Americans have two minds about this. In our mythology we have this sense that the courts are this great place where David can best Goliath in the courtroom. People still believe that. And they think it’s important. But at the same time they don’t fully understand that these [tort reform] measures minimize that possibility.

Americans think that filing a lawsuit is a form a victimology—that it’s an abdication of personal responsibility. There is a strong sentiment of that in American culture and there always has been. But if you provide the facts of an individual case they’ll say, “Wait a minute, maybe this person actually should get some money, because they were injured by someone else’s negligent conduct.”

Everyone has heard about the McDonald’s coffee spill lawsuit. What do people not know about Stella Liebeck’s story?
It’s so hard to sum up what really happened in that case in two sentences or less. The headline was, “Old Woman Spills Coffee on Herself, Wins $3 Million!” People think, coffee is supposed to be hot—ha ha ha. But what people didn’t hear is that the behavior of McDonald’s was rather callous. McDonald’s knew a lot of people had been badly burned by their coffee and still refused to turn the temperature down.

First, you need to know that Stella wasn’t driving when she was drinking the coffee, and when it spilled on her, she went into shock and ended up with third-degree burns on the inside of her thighs and other places you would not want to spill hot coffee on. She had to have skin grafts and spent a couple weeks in the hospital. Her daughter had to almost quit her job to take care of her because the health insurance money ran out and she had to be released from the hospital [early].

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