Bob,

Great Idea except that its a dumb idea.

Place monetary limits on recoveries. Thats fine if you want to make sure that people don't get compensated for their losses. Or if you want to create incentives for people to act in a dangerous manner or produce dangerous products. And of course you make it much easier for companies to design dangerous products when they can calculate exactly what there exposure is.

(Bob just how much is an arm worth? an eye? a life? how about years of pain?)

And as far as frivilous lawsuits go, there are already laws which provide for sanctionbs and attorneys fees to be paid for fivilous lawsuits, but you have remember that not every time that a person loses a lawsuit is it a frivilous suit.

I kept my mouth shut when Travis started this thread, but the McDonald's coffee case is one that really bothers me because people don't seem to understand it. I expected better from Travis.

THE WOMEN DID NOT RECOVER MONEY BECAUSE SHE SPILLED COFFEE ON HERSELF.

SHE RECOVERED MONEY BECAUSE SHE SUFFERED SEVERE BURNS AS A RESULT OF THE COFFEES BEING UNNECESSARILY TOO HOT.

HAD THE COFFEE NOT BEEN TOO HOT SHE WOULD NOT HAVE RECOVERED ANYTHING.

She was awarded punitive damages because it was shown McDonald's was actually aware of the problem (they had been paying out claims for burns) but choose to ignore it. Why, because it was probably more expensive for them to fix their coffee machines than to pay people for burning them.

The women in question suffered 3rd degree burns. Yes coffee is supposed to be hot, but not hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns. To put some perspective, years ago I was injured in a fireworks accident. I was struck directly by a still burning firework (from a professional display) The device was stil burning after I knocked it off of me. As a result of that I suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns. 3rd degree burns are more serious than 2nd degree burns. So this coffee was so hot as to do more damage to that women then the fireworks did to me. That doesn't seem like its a proper cup of coffee.