The figures I've read suggest it was higher than $11,000, and that McDonalds did not wish to cover that at all initially. Third degree burns are pretty brutal. That's not just blistering. That indicates several layers of skin melted. A first degree burn will not require a trip to the hospital. It gets red, you cool it down. Pain should at least be gone by the following day. That's really not the same as requiring skin grafts, and people are unlikely to anticipate such a risk from a cup of coffee. If you look over some of the threads on here, people are pretty damn clumsy, and it happens to everyone at some point. How many times have you noted threads on spilled x liquid on my laptop? Anyway note my response below. They could have paid her medical bills (before it turned into a lawsuit), adjusted their temperatures to something lower, and moved on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants
I don't always cite wiki, but it has a nice collection of source and reference links on the page

. I can't find any info how the 2.7 million in punitive damages became a number. Considering the references to other cases available and that they had been sued on such matters before, it should have been adjusted already. No one would expect a cup of coffee to cause third degree burns. In this one, McDonalds should have just covered medical right away, adjusted their policies accordingly and left it at that.