Hot Coffee

source: Hot Coffee

We as a people have to be aware of laws and public policy that is being influenced by big corporations through the use of/and because of money. Laws and public policy directly affect our freedoms as a people. This movie beautifully brings this to light, and uses a number of cases which illustrate corporate influence and just downright greedy behaviour. The narrative is interesting, entertaining and easy to follow. The "lawyer speak" is broken down so everyone can understand it. I highly recommend this movie! (PS. I WAS one of those "err she's suing over hot coffee?" people.. not any more!)

Sure I know the story we live in a world I sue you you sue me! It's all to common and it's true that many people will fake or play hurt to collect money from someone or some company. So it may be true that our system of awarding folks money for damages within the legal system is abused and gotten out of hand. Yet they are some cases where after seeing you just get steamed up and mad and you want to stand up and fight for the people against the companies and corporations. And in Susan Saladoff's recent HBO documentary "Hot Coffee" you see the evidence of the wrong doing of companies and corporations, as they are now using the law more and more to their advantage thru politics, tort reform, and arbitration. Highlighted is the well known mid 90's McDonald's coffee case from New Mexico. And I must agree when company temperatures are so hot that they cause burns that require skin grafts, then the injured is entitled a money settlement and rightfully justice. This documentary is informative and educational as it showcases the legal system and how people and the courts are affected by lawsuits. It's supported by newscast clips, interviews from legal and committee experts and touching is seeing how many people are done wrong by bad medical practices and corporations with arbitration rules. And the issue and debate of tort reform is interesting you must think should their really be a limit on it? And interesting and revealing is seeing how politics and the court system are becoming intersecting as more and more business type judges are being elected to the courts who are supported by the corporations so that they can be sided with over the common man. No matter what your stance is on the issue of tort, political connection, arbitration and wanting to file lawsuits, after watching this hot steamy revealing documentary "Hot Coffee" you will probably feel like standing up for the little people in their fight against the wrongs and personal physical damages that companies and corporations bring against them. It's clear it shows that the devil is many corporations best friend and arbitration is it's pitchfork. And showcasing tort reform is now a hot political topic everywhere. Overall "Hot Coffee" is one hot steamy documentary not to miss it's tasty energy will inspire you to fight for your legal rights just like those hurt and injured by political corporate greed.

It took me a few minutes after watching this "documentary" to remember that my mother used to visit friends or have them over, and they were all serving each other tea which they made by boiling water (212 degrees Farenheit...or 22 to 32 degrees hotter than MacDonald's coffee), pouring it into a flimsy teacup and handing it to each other. If any of the ladies had fumbled the tea onto their lap right after the boil, it would have left even worse burns than the old lady in the documentary suffered. I guess that would have been the fault of whomever was serving tea that day! This film was a good example of a public relations effort by the Democrat National Committee or the Obama re-election campaign, but its inability to deal with contrary views (other than as being summarized in a smarmy manner and thrown away as a paper tiger) shows how weak the effort was.

"Hot Coffee" is a film seeking equal time to explain the famous McDonald's coffee lawsuit. Information that public wasn't aware of is given in the film and the case isn't quite as simple as TV reported. But what they can't refute is that the original jury award was $2.9 million--an amount that STILL seems huge to me--though her injuries they showed in the film were pretty bad. Following this discussion, the rest of the film also explores lawsuit caps, cases where media reports are dead wrong and are only intended to illustrate a need for tort reform (such as the totally bogus lawnmower hedge-trimming case that never actually occurred though it was reported as fact). "Hot Coffee" is an interesting film but it's also one that has a very strong bias in favor of lawsuits. It gives lot of examples of legitimate lawsuits, damage caps and exaggerated cases that were reported in the media--and all this is true. But, the tort reform side can report the exact opposite--illegitimate lawsuits, ridiculously high jury awards and exaggerated cases that were reported by the media. As a result, I strongly caution LET THE VIEWER BEWARE. If anyone seriously says there is no need for lawsuit reform or that corporations are always right, then they are either out of their mind or simply cannot be trusted. This pro-lawsuit film doesn't seem to acknowledge ANY cases where oversight or abuses have occurred or the long-term cost on everyone (they just dismiss this and say suits DON'T increase costs--which just makes no sense). Doctors unfortunately DO make mistakes--and I felt for the family in the film. But repeated lawsuits have forced too many good doctors out of business--with many obstetricians abandoning their specialization. And, such unwanted and unexpected problems such as the shutting down of playgrounds, prisoners suing EVERYONE (including their victims) because they can, disbanding of little leagues and the like due to super-high insurance rates aren't discussed as well. Now I am not some big-business hack. I know that despite too many lawsuits, big corporations can buy still justice and have armies of lawyers and practically unlimited funds at their disposal. And, like the pro-lawsuit side, they, too, have their own hired experts who are paid to claim what's in their best interests. By the way, I checked and the consensus across internet sites devoted to coffee making seemed to indicate that the optimal temperature for coffee to be brewed is between 180-190 degrees. The public has shown the preference for this temperature and won't buy significantly colder temperatures. And, incidentally, this is the SAME temperature (190 degrees) as the coffee that spilled on this poor old lady's lap. Yes, the temperature we all want will cause horrible burns in some situations--so be careful! Overall, a well-written and constructed film--but a film whose message is heavily one-sided. I would REALLY like to see a film that looks at both sides of the issue--thus providing a much more objective look at lawsuits in America today. By the way, one thing the film did made me irritated. While the Chamber of Commerce and corporations do pour huge amounts of money into campaigns, it does NOT point out that trial lawyers and their organizations do the same. And, MOST politicians are lawyers--and some very famous ones have been trial lawyers (such as John Edwards), so the REAL story is much less black & white than the film portrays it to be.

the movie is presented in 4 chapters showing 4 cases. chapter 1 explains the (in)famous McDonalds hot coffee case. chapter 2 explores caps on liability. chapter 3 presents a "claim" of drugging and brutal gang rape that necessitated reconstructive surgery and the relation to binding arbitration and alternate dispute resolution. The section of the movie says what will then happen in the dispute. After the movie was released the person involved has been found to have made false claims. she eventually had a trial and it was found there was no evidence she was raped or suffered reconstructive surgery, her lawsuit was dismissed as baseless. Ergo, this entire section of the movie is untrue. chapter 4 explores judicial elections and/or judicial activism. chapters 1,2,4 are interesting but chapter 3 is so horrendously falsified that the entire work of the director should be discarded.

I love documentaries, this just doesn't really qualify as one. There is zero balance in the way the facts are presented. When you find out this "movie" was made by veteran lawyer who made her money on punitive damages, it makes more sense. I thought this was going to be about the hot coffee case but only a few minutes of the movie shows any insight. The rest is one long appeal to emotion about how the big bad companies are horrible and lawyers are superheroes. No matter your opinion on the issues, this movie does nothing to inform. If you want to see one long commercial appealing to emotions, using sad stories to sell the idea of big lawsuits (with big legal fees) then this is for you.

Let's get a couple of facts out of the way that this "documentary" never bothered with. From a taste standpoint, coffee has to be brewed just off the boil, which means at 195 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and you can not find anyone serious about good coffee who will disagree with that. Secondly, when someone hands you a cup of hot coffee, it's your responsibility to deal with it, to avoid injuring yourself with it. If someone hands you a loaded gun, and you shot yourself in the face, who's fault is that? Yes, this woman screwed up, she dumped a cup of very hot coffee in her lap. How the hell is that McDonald's fault? Because they sold coffee that is hot? Hells, bells, their customers EXPECT hot coffee. My brother when he was two years old, pulled a freshly brewed cup of hot coffee my dad had just set down for a second onto to himself and was hospitalized with burns all over his body. Gosh I wish we could have thought of someone to sue, because we'd be rich forever. This stupid woman poured hot coffee all over herself and sued the pants off McDonalds. And won. And this STUPID PIECE OF PROPAGANDA tries to make us believe that's justice. It's not justice. It's a set of tragedies. This woman was burned beyond belief and spent months in pain for a mistake SHE made. That's the first tragedy, but there's only one person who could have prevented it. The second tragedy is that a court of law inexplicably gave this woman millions of dollars of OTHER people's money for making a mistake that none of those other people could have prevented. And yet this film tries to convince us that's justice. It's not justice. It's extortion.

This film is much more than a Mcdonald's hot coffee spill. Just like in Inside Job, I was completely unaware of some of the horrendous things big companies get away with. Also, flabbergasted once again with our government. Arbitration, Tort Reform, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, I've heard these terms before but never knew what kind of serious harm they are capable of. This film thoroughly paints a picture. The only ones who would give this film a bad rating/review are the ones who are pro arbitration and tort reform. The ones who would allow a young woman to get raped, force her to do nothing about it, and not allow her the opportunity for a proper trial due to mandatory arbitration which she was not properly informed of when she got hired.

I admit I'm a devotee of documentaries. "Hot Coffee" delivers on both substance and emotion. It tells the stories of individuals who become negatively affected by so called tort reform laws. It begins with giving the viewer a very detailed study of the famous McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit. We see that McDonalds at that time had over 700 cases of folks being burned by the 180-190 degree coffee served at McDonalds. We see the horrific burns suffered by the woman in the famous case and we understand why this lawsuit was important. We see the case of a family dealing with a brain damaged son where the Nebraska law capped their damages so much that they had to go on Medicaid to care for their son. The doctor involved had several previous malpractice cases brought on her. Who ended up paying? The tax payers of Nebraska through Medicaid. And the most heinous case of the woman raped, beaten, and locked in a cargo box by Halliburton's KBR division in Iraq. Because her contract mandated arbitration, she was not allowed to sue Halliburton in court. The film also shows us just how much $$$ is spent by corporate and US Chamber lobbyists to stack state courts with pro-business/tort reform judges. And yes, Karl Rove is a key player in focusing attention on the need for tort reform. In one case, Texas, under then Gov George Bush, passes sweeping caps on tort damages claiming that this is significantly reduce health care costs....turns out health care costs continued to skyrocket especially since any savings from these caps were NOT mandated to be used in lowering any costs to providers or insurers. Bottom line....it's easy to manipulate the masses when big money interests want to control the message. "Hot Coffee" does a very good job of showing how we are told that juries can't be trusted to hand out punishment to those business interests who wrong and hurt the little guy...and $$$ then buys our politicians or courts to enact tort reform to benefit those in power. Watch Hot Coffee and learn.