Here we go again

[rocky2]

A New York City lawyer has filed suit against the four big fast-food corporations, saying their fatty foods are responsible for his client’s obesity and related health problems.
Samuel Hirsch filed his lawsuit Wednesday at a New York state court in the Bronx, alleging that McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC Corporation are irresponsible and deceptive in the posting of their nutritional information, that they need to offer healthier options on their menus, and that they create a de facto addiction in their consumers, particularly the poor and children.
So far, there's only a single complainant named in the suit, but Hirsch said at least two other clients would be filing soon in what he aims to make into a class-action lawsuit. All were regular fast-food consumers who suffer from ailments ranging from obesity to diabetes.

 

[bigpete]

I might have played pro baseball or won a few NCAA middle distance cross country events had I watched my diet. I'm sure I would have also had better luck with women in college had I been a few pounds lighter. I've often thought about suing my Mom, but maybe I'll blame Micky D's. Their pockets are a little deeper than Ma's, too. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Post Script: I am probably the happiest married man alive--18 years now. Having better luck with women in college would not have distracted me from my eventual bliss with my better half. I have now officially C.M.A. in the event my sweatheart looks through TBN to review my posts.

 

[Steelfan]

Wow, you said a mouthful there Bigpete. My Dad also says "If the dog wouldn't have stopped to take a crap, He would have caught the rabbitt." So true for many things in life.
By the way I'm also married for 18 years, but man are you buttering up. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif By the way good going, I keep reading about the percentage of married couples, who can't make it. Sometimes I think we are the minority. When we get a good one, we stay with them. My turn to butter. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[cp1969]

It was inevitable. Vilifying "Big Tobacco", a legal, government-subsidized product, worked. Now we'll turn to "Big Cholesterol"(fast food), then "Big Sugar"(soft drinks and candy). THINK of the legal fees generated.

If there is one product which has caused more problems than it's worth, IMHO it's alcohol, but it shall apparently be held harmless in all this while we mine the pockets of MacDonald's and the Good Colonel.

 

[WVBill]

<font color=blue>"THINK of the legal fees generated."</font color=blue>

Yeah - I saw an article in the newspaper last night that said lawschool admissions are up because of the job market. People are moving from high-tech into the current growth industry - lawsuits.

 

[RoyJackson]

"People are moving from high-tech into the current growth industry - lawsuits."

Really disgusting, isn't it?

 

[rocky2]

With all the butter you're serving up, you guys must have some big Christmas wishes planned or a great corn crop coming in . Me, she knows I'm bs'ing so it won't work.

 

[cowboydoc]

I suppose we better add all of grandmothers and mothers in there as well for their mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade pies, etc. What in the heck is this world coming to? Absolutely ridiculous /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

 

[Ozarker]

We can eliminate most of this garbage if we can get our legislators to institute just one simple change to the law. All we need is a "loser pays" system. The loser pays the legal expenses of the winner.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color=blue>All we need is a "loser pays" system. The loser pays the legal expenses of the winner.</font color=blue>

Can't agree with you on that one Ozarker.

Think about it. Do you think for a minute we'd have the asbestos settlements if there hadn't been a system in place to facilitate fair litigation? You can go right on down the line. Everything from cars made where the bean counters justified the cost of a life versus the cost of correcting the problem. Or something like the movie Erin what's her face and the PG&E thing.

Look at the tobacco settlement as a good example of what can happen to protect the consumer against business fraud with government approval. It was hard enough, the states couldn't afford to do it even, face big tobacco heads up.

What I find horribly hypocritical about this big bad lawyers in the woods fable is the real culprit of this is insurance companys not having the balls of a bull canary bird and letting the bean counters legislate justice.

You see the bean counters look at a case and know it's foolish. But they figure they can buy out at five thousand let's say. So they buy out. A decent attorney just trying to make a living now knows this case is worth five grand a pop even though it's not a viable court case. A couple of letters and three of these a month pays for the yellow pages ad.

They, the insurance companys, have made the rules of the game and yet they scream foul when they have to play it.

But when it really gets interesting is when there's a killer settlement and big business and the insurance companys go out raving about litigation being totally ridiculous. Especially when they complain about our jury system.

You take like the famous one of the little old lady and her coffee in the lap thing at Mickey D's. What few people took the time to read about was how the eighty something lady had third degree burns on the insides of her thighs. And the litigating attornies was able to show that Mickey D's had a policy of paying off hundreds of people injured by their hot hot coffee. Even though they'd paid dearly for injuring people just cause they'd found out people preferred to go coffee hot hot. It was their policy the heck with the fact that it hurt people, old people, kids, not just people to stupid to keep from spilling it on themselves.

The jury decided as their right and in reality their job to punish Mickey D's and maybe change their attitude towards their customer. But most folks saw it as a phony case with a phony award just because all they heard were the pundits and late night comedians having fun.

The best thing to happen to common man in these United States is having the adversarial judicial system on their side. It's what's made business honest when they put a product out there. And if you think about it the ones doing the most crying about lawyers being our watch dogs are the ones making the faulty products that kill our kids and loved ones.

Of course the anti lawyers do have their pundits on their side preaching the simplistic gospel of one liners being the total answer to anything.