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Imaginary Cases & Urban Legends: The Stella Awards Debunked
See Additional Resources for details about civil justice myths.

The "Stella Awards" is a collection of urban legends and fake legal cases designed to perpetuate the myth that there is a 'lawsuit crisis' in America. Advocates of limited legal rights have been circulating these make-believe cases for years, using fake examples to underme public confidence in our legal system.

Facts About Stella Liebeck's Case
The fictitious "awards" are named after an elderly woman who was severely burned due to the negligence of a greedy corporation. A number of lies about her case have spread via email, but in fact:

Stella Liebeck wanted only to be reimbursed for the cost of her medical treatment alone and to settle the case, but McDonald's opposed her request and took the case to trial.

Stella was severely injured. At 79 years old, she suffered third degree burnsto her legs and genitals, was hospitalized for over a week, and had to have multiple skin grafts.

McDonald's lost—a jury of American citizens heard the evidence and decided against the company.

During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more than 700 claims by other people burned by its coffee over a 10 year period and still refused to sell its coffee at a safe temperature.

More facts about the McDonald's Scalding Coffee Case
The "Stella Award" Is Meaningless
Searches for news stories or the actual legal cases have turned up nothing. Even StellaAwards.com claims many of the Internet stories are fabricated. Among the imaginary cases:

A woman who supposedly sued a furniture store after tripping over her own son. No such case or plaintiff exists.

A man who, assuming the vehicle would drive itself, sued Winnebago after setting the cruise control at 70 mph, left his seat and went to the galley to make a cup of coffee, and then was surprised when it crashed. Neither the incident, nor any lawsuit exists.

A woman who sued a restaurant after she threw a drink on her boyfriend and slipped on the floor. Again, there is no record of any such lawsuit.

A woman sued a nightclub after falling through a bathroom window and knocking out her teeth while trying to sneak in to the club without paying a cover charge. Neither the case nor the plaintiff is real.

Seven more phony cases in a 2002 version of the "Stella Award" email
How to Spot a Fake
While phony emails like the "Stella" chain letter are a common problem on the Internet and even in mainstream newspaper articles, they all share one characteristic—no citation to a source.

More Than Harmless Jokes
Urban myths like the "Stella Awards" aren't just cute or harmless jabs at trial lawyers and our legal system. They clearly are part of a massive disinformation campaign designed to undermine Americans' confidence in our legal system and to benefit powerful corporate interests at the expense of average people harmed by corporate wrongdoing and indifference.

What You Can Do
Write back to whoever forwards you a questionable email

Voice your skepticism

Debunk the myth

In your letter, you can debunk the myth or ask the sender for more details, especially if no case names or citations are mentioned. Most often these details cannot be provided because they do not exist.

Posted by * at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Mean Girls has decidedly mass appeal. No sooner had Terri brought my dvd back then did Mike grab it. Its a great film and I really love that everyone enjoys it as much as I do.

Speaking of movies, I was going to go see The Deal last night but went running instead. Eddie and I still have yet to run together; he claims I will run too fast but i doubt that (although the hilariy ensues when I recall that, when we first started dating, we went running together and be/c he didn't want to admit that i was a better runner, he would sprint ahead of me and then hide while I passed him and then just reverse himself to the end of the run so by the time I got there, after actually running the course, it appeared he'd been there for hours). We laugh about it now.

I am eating lunch and have a new fondness for funions. True, they are really bad for you and all that, but what can I say...I do love to eat. I am surprised I don't weight 200 pounds. I have weighed between 115 and 120 since I was 18 and it hasn't changed. Strange but in a good way; they say maintaining (if you're not obese) is healthy.

This weekend will be fantastic; PRIDE with Will and basically living with Eddie from now-Monday morning. I really don't sleep as well when hes not breathing steadily beside me.
He had a dream the other night I left him and woke up all upset; I was glad I was there right away.

Posted by * at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last night I had dinner with Erick and Lindsay at the Grand Lux--it was good and I ate so much my belly began to ache on the train home. It was nice to see the two of them.

I am eating sushi right now, contemplating the wall of ice that has formed on my a/c, and getting ready to do the home remedies beginning with Home Depot this evening.

I have been watching alot of movies lately; Mr and Mrs Smith, Batman Begins, and The Perfect Man. Batman was great; I loved it. I want to live in Gotham city.

Also, I went to the beach on Sunday and got tan lines. :)

So that was the most random post ever but thats where my mind is at right now.

Posted by * at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

THESE ARE DARK TIMES
Sometimes I say that in jest but lately, I feel this…weight of sadness about me regarding just what is happening.

This could be because I tend to internalize things that happen in the outside world. It isn’t so much that it affects me personally in any type of offense but I can’t simply walk away, mentally, from the injustices that happen around me.

Take for example the emergency contraception issue. Sigh. I just sighed, outwardly, because I feel exhausted thinking about the many “bullet points” of how incredibly inappropriate and unacceptable it is for any person to deny a woman emergency contraception…and the thing is, I used to be a union organizer, I am well aware of the rights that workers have, regardless of whether it’s a white or blue collar job. That doesn’t excuse the behavior of pharmacists…we don’t live in a country, nor do they work in a sector, that has established a moral code of conduct for on the job experiences. I feel as though we are a country that largely takes for granted the true rights we have out of fear, but obsesses over the rights that the mass population has taken control of, so fear and uncertainty do not block them as they do the other, less publicized rights. Or maybe what I am trying to say is none of these rights may be even established, or if they are somehow discernable within the Bill of Rights, they are largely exaggerated or misinterpreted and taken out of context.

In what reality does a pharmacist get to stop doing his or her job because of their moral obligation?

In what reality does a President get to appoint to the UN a man who feels it is his job to change and “better” it, when this country a) has refused to even acknowledge the stance the UN respectfully inhabits and b) believes it to be a country that can usurp the power and respects of the international community at large?

There are so many more issues that I hear about, read about, think about, talk about, that I wish I could write about but its just…this exhaustion coupled with sadness.

Or, maybe the problem is how compromised I feel; this growth, this development into adulthood. No longer a blind idealist, not yet a fearful and experienced adult, but this wishy washy middle ground where the echoes of my “old” self and “old” political ideology is colliding with the reality of age.

And yet that cliché, of realizing age and experiences do shade the sunny idealism that youth nurtures, bothers me still. But I can’t box myself into a corner and claim to be able to accurately see the dimensions of the entire room, which makes it all the harder to claim a personal position with a realistic objectivism. Is that even possible?

…and the beat goes on.

Posted by * at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments