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If you find Americans' unfettered access to the legal system to be such an abomination, I'm sure there are a few billion people that would gladly change places with you.

As funny/infuriating as these types of stories are, they speak to the decency of the individuals involved and not the integrity of the American legal system and its principles. If there is any collective shame to be had, it would be on the attorneys who make their "bread and butter" from these types of lawsuits.

Bravo, sir. Bravo. You can't see it, but I just stood up and started clapping.
 
What is the percentage, exactly, of people here in our fair country that are capable of taking responsibility for their own actions anymore?

what's the percentage? probably somewhere in the .000000000000000001% range. ------> how sad is that?

unfortunately, ignorance can be (and is often quite) used as an excuse to sue someone for something that should have zero merrit in a grand society like ours that we hold so dearly.

this is the reason why I hold EXTREME capital punishment so dearly in my opinion. other countries cut peoples' hands off as punishment for doing very bad crimes. I'd vote for the same policey here in America in a heartbeat if I could.

in other words, you play, you're gonna have to pay. ;)
 
what's the percentage? probably somewhere in the .000000000000000001% range. ------> how sad is that?
Given that there are only ~6,000,000,000 people in the world, this doesn't allow for any responsible people at all. The number you posted is 1:100,000,000,000,000,000,000 i.e. about 12 orders of magnitude larger than the population of the US.

(I know it was hyperbole, but it irks me when numbers people make up aren't remotely consistent with reality.)

B
 
The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html

May it please the court: Many stories are going around the 'net saying they are "The Stella Awards". Many of these stories are false, made-up, or (sometimes) true stories with false elements added to them. It makes no sense to use false examples of real problems when there are so many true examples that illustrate the actual problem.

The sad part: despite these stories having been debunked years ago, they not only still circulate, but many reporters, columnists and radio "personalities" still talk about them as if they were true, which says a lot about their professionalism. In many outrageous cases, these lazy "news" people will even link to this site as the source of these silly lies! What a ridiculous lack of standards they have!

The most-common e-mail example is the following, which the clerk has marked "Exhibit A". We've received many, many copies of it over the last few years, and no doubt you have too. You'll see what we mean by "bogus".

Use some critical thinking, please.
 
What a waste of time

No one made you buy an iPhone retard. Prices change all the time. That's how the tech business works. I stood in line and bought one knowing full well that they would drop in price someday. Now I have a 200.00 credit at apple for a new iMac. Maybe your just mad they were out of 8G so you had to get a 4.
No one wanted a 4 to begin with anyway. Get a life, stop wasting time, and stop trying to cash in at someone else's expense.
 
Use some critical thinking, please.

Perish the thought.

This case might make a good, real nomination for a Stella Award, though.

Not that people often collect anything by filing bizarre lawsuits, they are price we pay for an open, accessible legal system.
 
That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

Although the cases mentioned in the reply are all hilarious, not a single one of them. . . ever happened. You can search every jurisdiction in the United States, and nowhere will you find them.

They are, however, fabulous as comedy....
 
Reality Check

As an attorney in the U.S., I can tell you that 99% of what you people are claiming out here is more silly than any lawsuit filed against Apple.

With regard to the McDonalds case, anyone who actually took the time to review it instead of spouting off about how the case was “frivolous” in such a lemming like fashion would discover the case was meritorious. That woman deserved every penny she received.

Secondly, you people do not even know anything about the merits of this case against Apple. I guess U.S. Courts have a huge disadvantage over the populous. They actually have to wait until the evidence is presented before making a decision. You people seem to have the “inside track” as to what is really going on. The American legal system should just chuck due process and legal procedure and simply consult “Macrumors.” It is, you know, just possible this case is based on the law. I know that comes as a shock to you legal experts out here.

Third, “12(b)(6)?” Give me a break. It is a tough sell, and the case will almost certainly survive that stage.

Fourth, contingency agreements are used in more than personal injury cases. This was probably a contingency case. And the idea that lawyers file contingency cases without regard to their merit is ridiculous. In fact, contingency case are very risky to attorneys. The attorney must put up all the money, do all the work, and hope he gets paid. Attorneys use great care in taking them.

Finally, Americans and others continue to repeat this tired old claim the lawsuits are too prevalent in America. In reality, it is simply a Right Wing lie meant to convince juries that when a company is sued they should be given a break. Certainly some cases are frivolous, however, the vast majority are meritorious and maybe, just maybe, you people should consider the possibility that there is something here and you don’t know everything with your crystal balls.
 
It may be true that a lot of lawsuits have merit, but suing a company for dropping the price on a product when you bought a lot of stock to re-sell at a higher price seems ridiculous. If that is indeed what she was doing, that would be what we call speculation, the same thing people always do whenever a hot new product comes out that they expect to be difficult to find.

Speculation always carries a heavy risk, and based on what has been released to the public in terms of information on the case, it sounds like she expects Apple to compensate her for lost sales and profits because she (an unauthorized reseller) couldn't make a profit on the phones she purchased. If she had entered into some sort of reseller agreement with Apple with regard to the phones and they had promised Price protection and had failed to provide it after the drop, which resulted in substantial losses for her, I could see it being a meritorious case.
 
Idiots!!!!!

This is by far the dumbest thing i've ever heard of on the face of the planet!! First of all this lady person that thinks that she'll get a cool mil cause she cant get over the fact that everything depreciates nothing will ever hold its value especially a phone that about 2-3 million people have!! Second this isn't freaking court so why the hell am i reading a legal dispute between two people from two differrent countries?
 
The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous, ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

7th Place

Kat hleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside of a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

******************** 6 th Place

19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

******************************** 5th Place

Terrence Dickson of Bristol , Pennsylvania , was leaving a house he hadjust finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

*************************** 4th Place

Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than originally sought, because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time, by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

********************************* 3rd Place

A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania , $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

********************* 2nd Place

Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a Night Club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms.Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

****************************** 1st Place

This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home.The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around.



She could actually win or possibly settle the stella awards are proof of the stupidest lawsuits ever.For the doubters just read first place and tell me she does not have a chance
 
This is by far the dumbest thing i've ever heard of on the face of the planet!!

You must be very young, or don't get out much.

She could actually win or possibly settle the stella awards are proof of the stupidest lawsuits ever.For the doubters just read first place and tell me she does not have a chance

These "cases" are all urban myths.
 
You must be very young, or don't get out much.

I think im the one who gets out since i've only been doing this forum for about 5 hours and your right i am young thankfully. and you've been doing this for how long? for 5 years? looks like your to OLD or YOU dont get out much budd.
 
It happens all the time and will always continue to happen. Just embrace it and join the crusade. Let's burn this mother f'er down!!!!!!!:eek:
 
I think im the one who gets out since i've only been doing this forum for about 5 hours and your right i am young thankfully. and you've been doing this for how long? for 5 years? looks like your to OLD or YOU dont get out much budd.

Practically ancient.
 
Almost all tech-based consumer items drop in price from the time they are introduced until the time they are discontinued. There is no reason to expect that the iPhone is any different. Only a dysfunctional jury could find in the plaintiff's favor in this case.
 
Get real.

She could actually win or possibly settle the stella awards are proof of the stupidest lawsuits ever.For the doubters just read first place and tell me she does not have a chance

This is a perfect example of stories being summarized in a way that casts poor light on them and the American legal system and then get repeated, distorted, repeated, etc. Your seven stories are basically fiction. The McDonalds case, as an example, was a case that should have been brought much sooner - others would not have been injured.

These “cases” demonstrate that people love to find injustice where no injustice has occurred. And while I understand there are always the ignorant out there who choose to remain so, for those interested in seeing how a meritorious case can be distorted by those hoping to discredit the American legal system, read the real story at the link below. McDonalds got exactly what they deserved. (And they probably should have had to pay more.)

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
 
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