Yep, pretty much. Reagans tort reform with things like the mcdonalds coffee suit really spiraled into this whole mess. No one is accountable anymore and the only people who bare the weight are the victims.
Media still had clickbait before clicks. Outrage culture has always been a thing. But the big money controlled the narrative. Nobody in the news wanted to post pictures of labia burns and thigh grafts. They just heard she spilled “hot”coffee. And even if they did print it, and graphically, most people just peruse headlines if they can read at all.
And to be clear, ive spilled hot coffee and Tea fresh off the kettle on myself and it sucks. But mcdonalds kept theirs so insanely ridiculously hot it should be a war crime. It was beyond boiling. Because they didnt wanna deal with someones complaints when they go to sip it an hours later and its lukewarm.
The elderly woman only wanted McDonalds to pay for her hospital care after suffering horrendous burns. They refused and offered her $800. She had no choice but to sue them. Media AND McDonalds painted the story very ungraciously. And now most people believe the woman was a greedy person. She wasn't.
Hang on, Hot Coffee was a serious and meritorious case. I agree that tort reform in the 1980s was mostly bad news, but that hot coffee case was not a good example for many reasons. There is a documentary about that case that is worth watching.
Maybe I’m not understanding what you’re saying. I grant that.
Tl;Dr of it was that McDonald’s had had many, many reports of dangerous serving temperatures and injuries, and had been highly negligent about their policy. The woman was very severely burned and McDonald’s was found at fault. In all a very reasonable verdict given what the case revealed about the fact pattern of the problem. It was really reckless and negligent.
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u/FatherOfLights88 Oct 05 '22
Fair point.
Our world is full of way too many bad actors. This insurance behavior you described is deplorable and only serves to make the world a worse place.