Hobblecreek,
I respect the integrity you show. I also fully agree that there are good lawyers out there, as you appear to be one of them. My only issue with your post is that with the McDonalds case you referenced, even if they "overheated the coffee", I cant see the justification of a lawsuit. When I order something "hot" I expect it to be hot. Can I define hot? No, not really. If its too hot, should I sue? No..
Every company has gimmiks. If I spilled hot coffee on myself, I take the responsibility for it, I dont blame someone else. This to me is like suing the filling station because I added gas to my diesel truck because the pumps are right next to eachother. At some point, people need to get back to taking responsibility for their own actions.
Part of my iirritation for this is that I had attourneys tell me that my medical lawsuit was not justified. My wife nearly died because a student "doctor" told us that it was "too late in the evening to wake up the (real)doctor, this can wait until the morning". I know there is allot more to the story, but I'm keeping it simple. The told me that unless she has permenant physical conditions related to his poor judgement, we were SOL. She had a tumor that was bleeding out internally, it had appeared 6mo earlier then stopped bleeding making it unable to be seen in the tests. She began bleeding again, after her second transfusion, her doctor debated having her air lifted to Emory(medical college) because of the importance of time. He finnaly decided to rush her in the ambulance after my wife gave her input(she doesnt like to fly). Needless to say, keeping it short, she had stopped bleeding by the morning time and the test her doctor ordered was never performed. She was released with no problem found....
Her doctor was livid and had the test performed at another hospital the following week. Within 8hrs of this test she was in the operating room, having the tumor removed.
Anyhow, I know this got a little long winded off on a rant. However, back on topic, I dont hate lawyers. I hate the system that keeps feeding the vultures. This system also keeps people looking for something they dont deserve, alowing them to blame someone else for their own actions. Disrespecting lawyers that take advantage of the system should be shot IMHO. Again I dont direct this to you, it is these lawyers that give your profession a bad name, even if they are the minority.