‘Hot Coffee’: The truth about lawsuits

By Diana Rhodes
President of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association

Did you see Hot Coffee – did your friends? The documentary aired on HBO Monday. If you missed it, here’s a little social experiment. Ask a random family member, friend or colleague to name the most famous lawsuit in this country. You can bet that several, if not all of them, will respond with some version of the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit. Now go ask them to provide you with the details of that case. The answers you get will probably vary wildly, only sharing one thing in common: they are usually incorrect.

The HBO documentary sets the record straight about this infamous case and sheds some interesting light on a corporate campaign aimed at closing the courthouse doors to American consumers.

Hot Coffee is the story of 79-year-old Stella Liebeck who sustained severe burns when a cup of coffee spilled in her lap. Her injury led to a lawsuit against McDonald’s, which ultimately led to the infamous $2.7 million verdict everyone remembers. The details of the story, however, have been grossly exaggerated over the years to make Ms. Liebeck appear as someone who just wanted to get rich from her own mistake. Through interviews with Ms. Liebeck, her family, attorney and others, the truth comes to light, and we get to see Americans react to hearing the real story they thought they knew so much about.

The documentary touches on such common misunderstandings as Ms. Liebeck’s burn severity (third-degree burns on her legs and groin that required an eight-day hospital stay), her supposed irresponsibility in spilling the coffee (she wasn’t driving the vehicle when the cup collapsed in her lap), and her supposed desire to “get rich” from her injury (she originally asked McDonald’s to simply pay her medical expenses and lost wages – around $20,000 – which McDonald’s refused). The film also explains the jury verdict and why they awarded Ms. Liebeck what they did.

As trial attorneys, we applaud this film for finally putting to rest some of the more outrageous exaggerations associated with this case. Regularly, we find ourselves engaged with the public on the McDonald’s case because the details have so long been lost. The information in the documentary is followed by the more sinister message of the film – that the exaggerations were not simply a product of misinformed individuals, but instead were part of a calculated effort by corporate America to give the civil justice system a bad image, and consequently curb the money they had to pay in lawsuits.

Ms. Saladoff’s film examines the amount of money spent by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests to form political front groups aimed at enacting so-called “tort reform” around the country. It also shows how political candidates from state lawmakers all the way up to presidential and judicial candidates are targeted based on how anti-civil justice or anti-lawsuit they are. The film does an excellent job of showing just how much money is spent to prevent individuals from holding the wealthy and powerful accountable. And trust us, the numbers are staggering.

Of course, the most interesting part of the film is watching people’s opinions change once they have seen and heard the truth about not only the McDonald’s case, but also about how much effort has been invested into closing the courthouse doors to everyday Americans. The civil justice system is the one true way in which everyday Americans can take on the large and powerful interests in this country on a level playing field. Unfortunately, the deck is being stacked against those who have been harmed through someone else’s actions. Their methods range from placing limits on what injured victims can recover to granting themselves complete immunity for their actions. Regardless of the manner by which they do it, the end result is that justice becomes harder and harder to come by. Our hope is that by shedding light on the truth about the McDonald’s case and the calculated effort being made to take our rights away, this film will begin to change attitudes.

Hot Coffee airs again on HBO July 2, 5, 10 and 12 and on HBO2 on July 25 and 28.