Name:Julienne Wong
DOB:22nd March 1985
Course:LLM International Law
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Wednesday 19 March 2008

Have heard about the Stella Awards?



It is basically a published book with a large collection of the the most ridiculous lawsuits filed in the US. The name "Stella" came from a women named Stella Liebeck who won a landmark case against McDonald (better known as the McDonald coffee case).Here's a short breakdown of the story:

-Stella ordered HOT coffee through a drive through McDonald's for 49 sens
-While trying to add sugar and cream, she accidentally spilled the HOT COFFEE on her lap
-Consequently she suffered a third-degree burn
-so she decided to sue McDonald s for USD20,000
-McDonald only offered her USD800 and refused to raise the figure
-During trial, McDonald claimed that there was a warning on the coffee cup but the juries was of the view that the WARNING WAS TOO SMALL
-So Miss Stella won USD160,000 for compensatory damages and a further USD2.7 MILLION for punitive damages.

So basically this lady paid 49 sens for a coffee and got 2.7 million in return!
McDonald s are such clowns...bet they didn't think this frail old lady could last that long to win their money.Yah so thanx to her, now all our hot drinks has a big CAUTION HOT sign on our plastic cup.



I remember back in second year of law school, I had to read a good 120 pages on WHAT AMOUNTS TO HOT WATER!!! Seriously, these judges can go on, and on and on.

They wrote 120 pages on WHAT AMOUNTS TO HOT WATER...you ought to give it to the judge for being so creative for covering almost ALL POSSIBILITIES relating to hot water. -_-



Anyway, back to the Stella awards. It's always fascinating to read this sort of cases.

Firstly,it proves that no matter how ridiculous your claim is, as long as you can persuade the jury(most often it's emotional persuasion) , ANYTHING SEEMS POSSIBLE.


Secondly, I ought to applaud the lawyers creativity to make stupidity sound reasonable and going to court everyday without FEELING LIKE AN IDIOT.


Furthermore,only in America can you get by suing the most ridiculous issues like suing a fast food chain for your obesity,blaming cigarette companies for cancer or suing your neighbor for emotional compensation because your neighbors dog killed your cat. It's ridiculous yes, yet it's so fascinating( at least to me) that I can't stop reading about it.Like, this one


January 2000:
Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000
by a jury after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler
who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of
the store were understandably surprised at the verdict,
considering the misbehaving little bastard was
Ms. Robertson's son.

or this one

May 2000:
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson
of Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500 after she slipped on a
soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the
floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30
seconds earlier during an argument.

You try this kind of trick in kl, every 1/3 people from Breakfields will throw rocks at you!

Labels: lawsuits, mcdonalds, stella awards

11:20 4 Potato(es)

4 Comments:

Other than I don't remember if I should know of a book called the Stella Awards or the name Stella, I do recall reading about Stella's case and the case about the toddler. Didn't you post about those two in your old blog? That's where I thought I read about them at least.

But yeah, reminds me of the Jury question (should UK retain or abolish it).
The fact that juries today are/seem gullible and easily swayed by oratory skills and emotion were two of the major points to do away with them I think. I can't remember many points to retain, other than for... uh... sentimental value? lol, no wait I think it was the symbolic significance.

By  Anonymous, at 19 March 2008 at 22:26  

yeah i posted about the dog who killed the neighbors cat but then I got curious how did the book initiated so I decided to do some research then blogged about it.

The jury question...brings back old memories about my LMS subject.You know the jury system in UK allows all law related professionals including judges,barristers and solicitors into the jury system now. My housemate just got summon for jury system.

By  Julz, at 20 March 2008 at 10:59  

I could not help noticing how the link to comments read "potatoe" (I think the singular form being "potato" but I could be wrong).

That is fine but I cannot accept "2 potatoe". I simply cannot.

I suggest it be changed to "potato(es)".

*smooch*

By  Sha, at 21 March 2008 at 00:16  

hahahah sha u and ur england. Ok lar i change for u

By  Julz, at 21 March 2008 at 06:35  

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