At 16:57 12-07-2002 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote: > > Now we have the Stella Awards, given to the individuals who win the > > most frivolous lawsuits ever.The Stella Awards are named in honor of > > 81-year-old Stella Liebeck, the woman who won $2.9 million for spilling > > a cup of McDonald's coffee on her crotch.
<snip nominations> See, that is exactly why the rest of the world thinks Americans are crazy. You sue each other over the most ridiculous things, and then actually manage to get awarded amounts of money that bare no relationship to the actual damage. I am not familiar with what is considered "reasonable compensation" in other countries, but over here in The Netherlands, we take great care NOT to create an American situation. Many lawsuits that make it to US courts are considered so ridiculous here that they will never even make it to court (such as the lawsuits mentioned in the nominations for the Stella Awards). Claims for millions of Euros certainly will not get awarded -- if you win, you usually get awarded any real damages (medical expenses, loss of income, cost of replacing/repairing damaged goods) plus perhaps a few hundred Euros extra for the pain. IIRC, the highest amount ever awarded was NLG 500,000 (at current rate, approx. $250,000). And that is an extremely high amount by our standards. Jeroen _________________________________________________________________________ Wonderful World of Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com Tom's Photo Gallery: http://tom.vanbaardwijk.com
