While frivolous lawsuits are certainly a problem, I think everyone citing the McDonald's coffee example should watch the documentary Hot Coffee. It puts that incident in a new perspective.
For those not interesting in watching a documentary about the incident, the summary is that McDonalds served a woman, Stella Liebeck, coffee which was approximately 85C. Most coffee shops, at least at the time, served coffee about 60C. After getting the drink from the drive-through, she spilled the entire coffee on herself while adding sugar and cream to it. She was the passenger in the car, and the incident happened with the car parked. She received third-degree burns and needed a skin graft. She eventually won a substantial sum from McDonalds in a civil lawsuit.
The coffee's temperature met McDonald's policy. They set it higher than their competitors because they assumed people would keep it in a cup holder and want it to be a more drinkable temperature when they arrived at their destination. Today, McDonald's has not changed their policy and still serves coffee at 80-90C, and places like Starbucks serve it at similar or higher temperatures. They are able to do this because of better packaging that's less likely to spill the entire drink even if it's dropped on your lap like Liebeck did.
Personally, I don't think that it was a frivolous lawsuit. She did receive serious burns, more serious than I would expect someone to receive from spilled coffee.
Sure thing. I just thought I would dump this hear for anyone who happened to be reading this thread because I found that documentary pretty informative.
