It wasn't my intention to bash America or its judicial system. I'm commenting on a certain phenomenon, which may or may not primarily occur in the US - I don't care.
I also stated in my original post that the most common stories told are likely untrue or exaggerated, and not as ridiculous as they are made our to be.
But it wasn't the ridiculous occurences that I meant to point out - mainly the attitude.
My keyboard has a sticker on it warning me against RSI. Big trampolines are sold with warnings on them that you shouldn't do flips on them or you might break your neck. Companies get sued if they do not issue those warnings, even in the not-so-ridiculous McDonald's case this played a role:
From
http://caoc.com/facts.htm , the website linked to earlier:
[ QUOTE ]
The company admitted its customers were unaware that they could suffer third-degree burns from the coffee and that a statement on the side of the cup was not a "warning" but a "reminder" since the location of the writing would not warn customers of the hazard.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you ask somebody in a suggestive manner if he or she wants to have sex with you, next thing you know you're staring down the barrel of a lawsuit. (Better hope (s)he says 'yes' [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])
Where is the common sense in this world? I understand that there is a price for any judicial system, as it can never be perfect. There needs to be legal room for people with legitimate claims. One or two people getting away with a frivolous claim does not matter much in the big scheme, unless it's a common situation and a precedent is set.
One person filing a sexual harassment suit because somebody else said 'do you want to [censored] me' won't clog up the system and interfere with 'real' justice. Nevertheless, it is still a waste of resources. Even if it only costs a few grand, that could have been spent on better things.