What a lot of people get wrong about the infamous 1994 McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit

[natyanayaki]

Adam Ruins Everything explains that the case wasn’t about greed, but about a working-class woman forcing a big company to make its product safer.

It's treated as a classic example of judicial overreach and greed: A woman, driving in her car while holding McDonald's coffee between her legs, spills some of the coffee on herself. Inflicted with some

Comments

[skittish_derby]

This was all in that documentary from a few years ago "Hot Coffee." It was really great one, about tort law and consumer rights.

It actually came up in a heated (heh) discussion I had with my MIL over the summer.

[ioplokon]

that docu is so good! although really depressing, honestly.

[skittish_derby]

It was sad, especially all the stuff about how companies (and the govt) are actively keeping you from your right to escalate issues, with propaganda as well as contracts you have to sign if you want to use their services. sucks.

[lovedforaday]

it pissed me off when that poor woman's extreme and terrible injuries became a punchline. you try getting third degree burns on and around your vaginal area and see how funny it is.

[soleiltropiques]

+1

[soleiltropiques]

This is a really interesting post, OP.

I'm not American, but I had heard of this case and what I first heard was the McDonald's version of this case, which is just gross.

Here is a really good and pretty recent article about the actual problems with the US justice system and how justice is becoming less and less accessible to ordinary people, 'Why You Won’t Get Your Day in Court': http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/11/24/why-you-wont-get-your-day-in-court/

We also have some of the same problems in Canada, so this isn't unique to the US (where I live, lawyers are inaccessible to most of the population): https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/18/access_to_justice_in_canada_abysmal_cba_report.html

This really needs to change.

[natyanayaki]

thank you for the links! i will read them when my brain doesn't feel like mush.

[golden_bastet]

We talked about this and related cases in graduate school (we were talking about public policy around "common" items that could be hazardous).

We knew, but we also knew that most people would never be aware of the actual details. Pretty discouraging.

[natyanayaki]

"(the same who stated to me "I hope you have a green card.")"

eww