Well, I've hit the the week mark. One week down, 51 to go! So far I've learned enough to talk someone's ear off at a party. I hope by the end of the year, I'll be able to run off friends and family with my warehouse of knowledge.
That monkey doc threw me a little off course, so I'm a day behind in posting. It worked out for the best because I needed some time to cool off after watching today's documentary. Hot Coffee pissed me off more than anything I've seen in a while.
The film follows 4 story lines with one overriding theme: tort reform. Though I had heard this term before I never knew what it meant. Turns out it's one of the worst things ever. To put it simply, tort reform is code for restricting private individual's rights to go to court and seek compensation, usually against large corporations.
So the film's about 4 people who fought against large corporations in court and lost.
What I Learned: The most famous case, and the one the film is named after, is that of Stella Liebeck. She sued McDonald's after being burned by a cup of coffee. We've all heard this story right? She sues McDonald's for spilling coffee on herself while driving, gets millions of dollars, and sparks a trend of frivolous lawsuits around the country? Well I was blown away at how much of the story most of us are missing. For one thing, the coffee was served at 180 degrees, 40 degrees hotter than other fast food places. She developed 3rd degree burns on her groin, legs and butt and lost 20 pounds due to skin grafting procedures. And she wasn't even driving. She was in the passenger seat when the coffee was spilled. It's reported that within a 10 year period there were over 700 claims of similar burns. McDonald's claims "this number of injuries was insufficient to cause the company to evaluate its practices."
And the original punitive damage amount was 2.7 million dollars, which sounds like a lot till you realize that is only 2 days worth of coffee revenue for the company. 2 days! She ultimately was awarded less than 600,000 dollars. More than anything, her and her family claimed the biggest issue was becoming poster-figures for campaigns against frivolous lawsuits. Society uses her as the definition of people suing for the sake of suing, when very few know the details of her situation.
The next two stories were kind of boring. Don't get me wrong, they were very sad and very good examples of large corporations picking fights with individuals with few resources, but they didn't really stand out to me. The last story, about a young woman who was gang-raped while working for Haliburton in Iraq, was so bad I can't even talk about it. If I start to explain the complicated, terrible story, I'll fill 40 pages. I just suggest you watch the film, or at least take time to study up on the story. Here's a good link that tells the most recent update on her case against Haliburton:
Jamie Leigh Jones Loses Rape Case
What I liked: The first and last stories were riveting, depressing, and enraging. I felt like I learned a lot about the lengths large corporations will go to to keep cases out of court. I used to rail against frivolous lawsuits as much as the next person, but my eyes have really been opened to the propaganda that large companies put forth. I can say my views have drastically changed.
What I didn't like: The film was one sided. Though they acknowledge they reached out to the other side and were declined interviews, I feel like there's got to be some other view points that could have been represented. Not in the specific cases, but in regards to tort reform in general perhaps.
I didn't care for the inter-spliced scenes of random people on the street being quizzed on how much they knew about these famous cases, or legal terms like tort reform or mandatory arbitration. I don't see the point in rubbing in the fact that Americans are woefully under-educated about their legal rights. Watching people speak so confidently about something while I know they were about to be told they are wrong makes me squirm in my seat. And then, when they were told the correct answers, they accepted them with no hesitation. The point should be to instill a sense of individual curiosity and educated self reliance in the public, instead they are swapping out one side's views for another.
In the end I highly recommend this, if only to help end the spread of old wive's tales regarding the Old Lady and the Hot Coffee myth.
Here's the trailer
And here's the video online. It was a B* to watch because it kept starting and stopping and had problems loading. If you can find a different way to watch it I would recommend it.
http://www.watchseries-online.eu/2011/06/hot-coffee-2011.html
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