Legal Studies Class Notes McDonalds Lawsuit Documentary March 27 2014 Exhibit 1 The Public Relations Campaign Facts of the case Stella Liebeck was sitting in the passenger seat of a car and got a coffee from McDonalds The driver pulled over so they could get organized and so Stella Liebeck could add cream to her coffee In the process of putting cream in her coffee she accidently spilled it on her legs The coffee was so hot that Liebeck suffered severe burns and was taken to the hospital and had to have skin grafts In total medical expenses were over 10 000 The family was not planning on suing but asked McDonald s to help cover the medical expenses When McDonalds only offered 800 the family decided to take McDonalds to court They found in discovery that the coffee was prepared with water from 180 degrees to 190 degrees Many people believed it was a frivolous lawsuit Exhibit 2 Caps on Damages The Case of Colin Gourley Michelle Knolla did not recognize that Colin s mother while pregnant was suffering from a syndrome that when pregnant with twins one twins was getting all the nutrients while the other was slowly getting less and less This caused Colin to be born with severe brain damage never to have a normal life The jury awarded Caps on punitive damages noneconomic caps harm pain suffering things difficult to difficult to determine actual number total caps total caps you can receive Colin s family was awarded 5 6 million as an appropriate amount of money that family would need to take care of Colin for the rest of his life including therapy education and other necessities because of his brain damage Exhibit 3 Oliver Diaz Was running fro reelection on the Mississippi Supreme Court 2000 He was deemed not pro business and the U S Chamber of Commerce spent millions of dollars to send out negative campaigns against them The U S Chamber of Commerce is NOT a government agency it is a group of business There is a limit on the amount of money that one can spend on a campaign and accept by donation but there is not limit to the amount of money that a group can spend on campaign promotions The U S Chamber of Commerce After Diaz was reelected there was an investigation against Diaz because of the loans taken out and co signed by his friend Diaz then went through three years of trials in which held no true ground When he went to run again in 2008 the U S Chamber of Congress ran another well financed campaign against him and he lost
View Full Document
Unlocking...