Stellar Awards

[John_Betong]

Hi Mods,

If you think this post is more at home in the 'Jokes' section or elsewhere then please feel free to move or possibly delete because it is not Thailand related.

Stella Awards

It's time once again to consider the candidates for the annual Stella Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.

The following are this year's candidates:

1. Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub 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.

2. 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 sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3. A 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 hub caps.

4. A. Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 a! after she slipped on a soft drink spill 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.

5. Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just 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 reenter 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.

6. A jury of her peers awarded Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, $780,000 after breaking her ankle by tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

7. This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $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 buying their recreation vehicles.

[Donz]

Only in america

[suegha]

I would seriously like to know if these are for real. Is there any way we can verify them?

[ThaiPauly]

They are all very amusing, but not "This Year's" They are at least 3 years old.

I love the guy with the Motorhome.....what on earth was he thinking?

[mumbojumbo]

For some reason the Stella awards and the Darwin awards seem to stay the same for years. I wish i had 1 baht for all the above that have been e-mailed to me, but always the same. Wish they would update with dates.

[Crossy]

No matter how often I see these I smile, I really wish they were true, unfortunately it would appear not :-

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

However, the 'real' ones are almost as crazy:-

http://www.stellaawards.com/2002.html

http://www.stellaawards.com/2003.html

http://www.stellaawards.com/2004.html

http://www.stellaawards.com/2005.html

[farangsay]

Only in america

Maybe , maybe not.

I once had a Renault Espace 'people carrier' here in France with the front seats

that swivelled round so you could picnic in it.

There was a sticker on the passenger side to the effect that the seat should be facing forward

when the vehicle was moving.

There was no such sticker on the driver's side.

Hmmm !

[Charma]

These are definately urban legends:

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

[sbk]

Only in america

Actually, no.

From the BBC UK:

Accidents will happen, but increasingly someone has to pick up the tab. But are three-quarters of Britons wrong to support our growing "compensation culture"?

Bosses beware, the next time you forget to provide an employee with a reference it could land you with a lawsuit.

In the last financial year the number of disgruntled workers who resorted to legal actions jumped 32%. Employees started more than 164,000 actions in the year to 31 March, compared to 124,000 in the previous year.

In one example a woman picked up £195,000 after her employer "wrecked her job prospects" by refusing to supply a reference.

The startling leap in litigation has prompted a stiff response from the Confederation of British Industry. It says more should be done to discourage claims which have little chance of success but cost companies a fortune in legal fees.

Commentators say the sharp rise in tribunal hearings is evidence of a growing "compensation culture" in the UK.

According to research carried out last year for the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), compensation claims cost Britain £6.8bn in 1998. The public sector alone pays out £1.8bn a year.

The study said more than one in seven people in the UK who suffer an injury requiring medical treatment take legal advice. In America the comparable figure is stable at about one in six. Britain is on course for usurping that figure.

Winning ways

Some 78% of Britons questioned in a new Mori poll said taking an employer to court over a personal injury was "socially and morally" acceptable.

The introduction of no-win, no-fee contracts for lawyers, an increase in the amount of individual awards, and tougher liability and employment laws are helping to fuel the boom.

What people often call bullying today, is what they used to call office politics

Inevitably, some cases have caused derision in the media, such as that of a woman who sued Durex for £120,000 after she became pregnant because of a faulty condom. The case was dismissed.

It's good news for lawyers, but Dr Frank Furedi, author of the CPS report, Courting Mistrust, believes there will be an ultimate toll on society.

"It's not the money I care about so much as the suspicion and mistrust this sort of behaviour creates in the workplace and outside," he told BBC News Online.

A man sued after he failed to get a boiled sweet on a plane. He lost

"Doctors no longer say 'if I were you I would do such and such'. Instead they give patients a list of options. You don't get the sort of advice you would like because it might rebound on them."

Health is one of the main areas affected by compensation culture, along with employment and personal injury.

British travel agents are said to have an annual £1m fighting fund to deal with personal injury cases filed by holidaymakers.

Among cases they have had to defend is that of Jean Gratton, who sued Airtours after a coconut dropped on to her chest while she was reclining under a palm tree in the Dominican Republic. Eventually, Mrs Gratton, who said the accident could have been fatal, received £1,700 in an out-of-court settlement.

Dr Furedi said the principal trigger for the rise in compensation cases was the lifting of laws banning solicitors from advertising. The result is some solicitors have gone on the offensive. For example, council tenants in some parts of the country have been leafleted by firms offering to take up claims for repairs that have not been carried out.

Another change in the law, to allow class actions - cases pursued by more than one litigant - has also contributed to the boom, said Dr Furedi.

But Patrick Allen, vice president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, rejected claims of a compensation culture. People are simply claiming what is rightly theirs, he said.

"There has been no change in the law that allows frivolous claims. If someone has been injured - which must be proved in a personal injury case - as a result of someone else's fault, they are due compensation," he said.

But it's not just lawyers who are getting a slice of the action. A new breed of unregulated personal injury claims assessors is emerging, with a reputation for "ambulance chasing" - ruthlessly pursuing possible claims.

These unqualified assessors operate outside the courts, usually firing off letters on behalf of clients. But this means they will often only win a fraction of the damages that might be awarded by a judge.

A report by the Lord Chancellor's office has recommended the government set up an awareness programme to alert the public to their work.

Dr Furedi thinks the clamour for compensation is going to get "worse" before it gets "better". After health and employment, he said, the next battleground will be education.

[Charma]

Thailand has a "compensation culture". It just doesn't involve any lawyers or courts!

[suegha]

Thailand has a "compensation culture". It just doesn't involve any lawyers or courts!