90 Seconds on Tort-Reform and “Outrageous” Jury Verdicts

Insurance companies have enormous marketing budgets to spend on propaganda to mislead the public into believing that there is an insurance and lawsuit crisis. They try to persuade the public that victims and attorneys are the ones responsible for rising medical costs and high insurance premiums.

For example, almost everyone has heard about the 79-year-old woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico who was awarded millions of dollars after winning a lawsuit against McDonald’s for burns she suffered when hot coffee spilled on her lap. What the insurance industry really did not want the public to know are the following facts:

• When she removed the lid from the container of scalding hot coffee, it spilled on her lap causing second and third degree burns to her buttocks, her thighs and her genitals.
• She spent eight days in the hospital for surgical skin grafting procedures and afterwards, she spent the next three weeks recuperating at her daughter’s home.
• At first, she wrote to McDonald’s on her own and asked them to please lower the temperature of their coffee. She also asked them if they would pay her $2,000.00 out-of pocket medical expenses.
• After making these reasonable requests, McDonald’s offered her the paltry sum of $8,000.00 When they refused to pay her out-of-pocket expenses, only then did she finally hire a lawyer who brought the case to trial.
• At trial, the medical experts explained that coffee served at 170 degrees would cause serious burns within 3 72 seconds.
• McDonald’s supervisors testified that they did not lower the temperature of their coffee even after they had received more than 700 burn complaints from other customers.
• The jury awarded the woman $200,000 to compensate her for the damages she suffered. However, they believed that she was partially at fault, thereby reducing the actual award to $160,000. Next, the jury awarded her $2,700,000 in punitive damages, which only represented approximately two days of coffee sales for McDonald’s.
• Next, the judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000.00. The bottom line is this: The verdict was substantially reduced, and McDonald’s never really had to pay the amount that the jury had originally determined as fair.

Just remember, if you’ve been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, and you’ve tried being reasonable when the insurance company or at-fault person refuses to be reasonable, you can always contact an attorney at Bell & Pollock to help you formulate your legal game plan.

– Dana N. Miller, Esq.