Better Living through Lawyers

Better Living through Lawyers

Trial Lawyers Sue McDonald’s over Monopoly Game

December 20, 2011

Here’s the latest episode in the series “Why People Hate Lawyers”. It is also yet more evidence of why the United States legal system is in drastic need of reform.

We don’t know about you, but we enjoy the McDonald’s Monopoly game. For those who haven’t played, here’s how it works. You buy a Big Mac, large fries, smoothie, Egg McMuffin or Chicken McNuggets and you get a game card. Scratch off the game card and you might win something. It might be a free Big Mac, medium fries, smoothie, or other non-food prizes like gift cards or cash. And the great thing is — we were going to buy that Big Mac anyway. The freebie is fun and makes it even better. Easy right?

Well, not for the attorneys in the plaintiffs’ bar. It seems that a bunch of class action attorneys figured that the McDonald’s contest, which millions of people enjoy, might be an easy way for the lawyers to make some big money.

So they sued, claiming that the Monopoly game violates something called the “Illinois Prizes and Gifts Act.”

They dusted off this obscure Illinois law, no doubt intended to protect consumers from unscrupulous contest scammers and rip-off artists, and decided they could use the statute to extort McDonald’s.

The lawyers allege that the little McDonald’s game pieces with the cute Monopoly man lack nine disclosures required in any “written promotional prize offer” under Illinois law. So, their argument goes, without that fine-print, the plaintiffs suffered a loss and are entitled to money damages.

Let’s get this right. The lawsuit argues that because McDonald’s didn’t squeeze all 9 random disclosure items onto that little card, the plaintiffs were harmed and are entitled to big bucks.

Just what kind of harm are we talking about? Indigestion? Would that McDonald’s customer not have ordered that Big Mac had he been given all 9 legal disclosure items on that little Monopoly game card? Does anyone even read that language?

And what is the societal wrong that this lawsuit is aiming to fix? Absolutely none. It is a lawyer shakedown, designed to extract a rich settlement from deep-pocketed McDonald’s.

And who will benefit? The attorneys of course. The lawyers will make millions in legal fees while each “suffering” plaintiff will receive literally pennies.

And 100% of the cost of the settlement will be passed on to — you guessed it – McDonald’s customers.

So, the plaintiffs will each make about twelve cents, the class action attorneys will make millions, and McDonald’s customers will pay for it all in higher prices. The public will lose again when companies like McDonald’s, afraid of lawsuits, stop running these fun promotions.

Better living through attorneys.

Now more than ever the United States legal system needs to be overhauled. Adopt the English system where the loser pays (a version of the English rule was recently adopted in Texas). Make the loser pay the winner’s legal fees and court costs, and the bulk of these frivolous lawsuits will disappear overnight.

Obama on Jobs: It’s Tech’s Fault

It's all Tech's Fault

Obama Blames Technology

December 19, 2011

At his recent speaking event in Osawatomie, Kansas (as always, his campaign trip funded by you, the taxpayer), President Obama once again cast blame for the nation’s woes on someone other than himself. This time it’s technology’s fault.

Here is what the-buck-stops-anywhere-but-here President had to say about his administration’s inability to create jobs:

“Layoffs too often became permanent, not part of the business cycle. And these changes didn’t just affect blue collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the Internet.”

So, three years into his hope and change Presidency, Mr. Obama is blaming technology and innovation for the continued joblessness. Rather than tout entrepreneurship, innovation and American exceptionalism which has brought us such recent tech-related job creators as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the Downer-in-Chief blames ATMs and the Internet for his administration’s failure to create jobs.

Last month’s jobs report indicated that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6% for the month of November. However, with only 125,000 new jobs reported in the private sector, most of the statistical improvement in the unemployment percentage was due to a 315,000 increase in the number of discouraged Americans no longer looking for work. Since the denominator in the unemployment rate calculation is reduced by this number of Americans theoretically dropping out of the workforce, the resulting fraction shows a statistical reduction in the overall unemployment rate.

Indeed, if you add back to the denominator the number of Americans who have stopped looking for work since Mr. Obama took office, the current unemployment rate would be at 11%.

This might be the key to Mr. Obama’s reelection strategy: rather than reverse course and abandon the big government, increased regulation, and higher tax policies that have so devastated the U.S. economy, President Obama will continue to create a labor situation so dire that more and more Americans lose hope and give up looking for work. The resulting reduction in the unemployment calculation denominator as increasing numbers of discouraged Americans leave the work force will make the unemployment percentage look statistically better.

The Obama administration and its media cheerleaders will boast that the President’s policies are working, even as outrageous numbers of American workers continue to suffer.

Incredibly disingenuous strategy to assure four more devastating years in office, but not beyond the capacity of what has been an incredibly disingenuous administration.