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Our justice system is way less impartial
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than we like to think.
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Adam, I'm serious!
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Kendra's freedom is on the line. Please stop scaring her.
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Nope, I knew it.
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The system is gonna screw me.
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They throw innocent people in jail
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while some old lady who spills hot coffee
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on herself gets a million bucks.
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Ah, yes, the famous
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McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.
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That case was terrible,
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but not for the reason you think.
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In fact, everything you've heard about it is wrong.
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(sighing)
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Tell me,
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what do you think happened in that case?
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So, there was this greedy lady,
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and she was all...
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I want money. My ethics are questionable.
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So, she gets a coffee
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at McDonalds, but she's like...
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I'm too dumb to know that coffee is hot.
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And she's driving all crazy.
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And she spills a little on her lap.
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(screams loudly)
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Then she's all like...
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Boo hoo! I'm suing McDonalds!
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I deserve money for being stupid.
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And now, she's a millionaire,
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and probably owns the Clippers or whatever.
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Oof! Sorry, all of that is wrong--
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the facts, the outcome,
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and especially that voice.
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Hey!
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A strong choice is better than no choice at all.
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Here's what actually happened.
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Stella Liebeck was a 79-year-old woman
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whose grandson drove her to McDonalds.
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She was in a parked car holding hot coffee
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in her lap when it spilled.
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Now, Stella openly admitted
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that the spill was her mistake,
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but the results were horrifying.
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She had third degree burns on her legs and genitals,
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and she went into shock.
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She had to undergo painful skin graft operations,
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and her surgeon said it was one
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of the worst cases he had ever seen.
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Stella was permanently disfigured and nearly died.
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Third degree burns? How is that possible?
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No one serves coffee that hot.
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You're right. Only a clown would.
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The reason Stella's injuries were so severe
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is that McDonalds was serving coffee
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at up to 190 degrees.
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That's almost boiling!
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McDonalds themselves even admitted that
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at that temperature, their coffee was a hazard.
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In fact, in the decade prior,
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over 700 people notified McDonalds
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that they had been burned by their coffee.
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Holy crow!
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The real irony is,
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Stella didn't even want to go to court.
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She just wanted McDonalds to help pay
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her $20,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses.
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But after making her wait for six months,
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they only offered her 800 bucks.
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Stella tried to get McDonalds to settle.
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She even agreed to mediation.
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But McDonalds wouldn't budge.
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They gave her no choice but to go to court.
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So when the jury heard Stella's story,
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they found that McDonalds had acted so irresponsibly,
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they had to be punished.
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They burned 700 people?
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This has gotta stop!
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Let's fine them two days' coffee sales.
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That's 2.7 million.
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That ought to teach 'em a lesson.
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It does. Robble-robble.
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And, it worked.
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In the end, Stella settled for less than 600 grand.
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But that was enough to get McDonalds
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to lower their temperature and stop burning people.
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This was an incredibly rare case where
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a working-class victim actually beat
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a huge team of corporate lawyers
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and made the world a better place.
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Wow, how do I not know about this?
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Because those corporate lawyers
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are really good at their jobs.
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They spent years running a disinformation campaign
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to convince Americans that there was
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"an epidemic of frivolous lawsuits."
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And the media bought it.
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It seems she was holding a cup
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between her legs while driving.
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Now she claims she broke her nose
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on the sneeze guard at the Sizzler
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bending over looking at the chickpeas.
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You get me one coffee drinker on that jury,
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you're gonna walk out of there a rich man.
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(clicks tongue)
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♪ Plasma getting bigger, Jesus getting smaller ♪
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♪ Spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars ♪♪
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And because of this false narrative,
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the witch hunt against "frivolous lawsuits"
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continues to this day.
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(all) Coffee's hot, suing's not.
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Lawsuits never should be brought.
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Coffee's hot, suing's not.
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Wow, they're really mad.
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Except that that anger is not real.
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These protests have been organized and sponsored
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by large corporations.
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Kendra, this Michael McCann,
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he's a professor of law and politics
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at the University of Washington
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and a co-author of distorting the law.
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Kendra, for the last several decades,
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large corporations afraid of being sued
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for making unsafe products
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create front groups like "Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse"
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to try and turn public opinion against lawsuits.
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This included companies like Pfizer and Texaco
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and big tobacco companies like Philip Morris.
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Philip Morris?
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Yeah, and by spreading this false story,
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they got everyone to believe
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that silly lawsuits were rampant.
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And nothing could be further from the truth.
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The best social science evidence
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shows that the number of personal injury lawsuits
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in recent decades has declined.
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And the median payout is only $55,000.
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Uh-oh! They smell the money.
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I better get out of here. Bye.
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Thanks, Michael.
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These mother falcon companies
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dragged an old lady through the mud
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so that we won't be able to sue them anymore?
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Yeah. This story is insane.
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McDonalds had a policy that almost killed someone
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and it took Stella's lawsuit to change it.
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She should be considered a hero.
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But because of the companies, we treat her like a punch-line.
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Okay, are you two done talking about civil court cases?
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Because Kendra's case is in criminal court.
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It's a completely different system,
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the one I happen to know quite a bit about.
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She has a great case
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and a jury is gonna be very responsive to it.
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Oh, they're a ton of problems with jury trials.
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If you do another act, I swear to gull...
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Sorry, it's happening. We'll be right back.