FEATURE/America Votes for Most Frivolous Lawsuits Via Internet in M-Law's First Annual Whiplash! Awards.Feature Editors & Legal Writers FEATURE... SOUTHFIELD, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--Sept. 5, 2000 A lawsuit against a blind man who accidentally stepped on a shopper's foot has edged out a case filed by college student who fell out of his dorm window while "mooning" friends to win the first annual Whiplash whiplash n. a common neck and/or back injury suffered in automobile accidents (particularly from being hit from the rear) in which the head and/or upper back is snapped back and forth suddenly and violently by the impact. ! Awards for America's most frivolous lawsuits. The lawsuits were included in an internet poll of outrageous lawsuits conducted by a citizen watchdog group working to restore common sense to our nation's courts. Online voters chose a Florida woman for the dubious distinction of filing America's most frivolous lawsuit because she sued a school for guide-dogs after a blind man who was using one of the school's dogs stepped on her foot. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a guide-dog instructor who was walking with the blind man through a mall, the woman said, "I wanted to see if the dog would walk around me." The winners of the awards were determined by an online poll at www.mlaw.org which featured five of the most extreme cases featured in a new book entitled, "Whiplash! America's Most Frivolous Lawsuits," by best-selling author James Percelay. The Whiplash! contest was promoted on national news programs during July and August by Percelay, a former producer for HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy and Saturday Night Live This article is about the American television series. For the show related to Big Brother (UK), see Saturday Night Live (UK). Saturday Night Live (SNL . The second place Whiplash! Award went to a man who sued McDonald's because it failed to warn customers about the dangers of eating and driving. According to the man's complaint, a customer who had purchased a milkshake at the restaurant's drive-up window collided with his car after spilling the cold drink in his lap. Third place was awarded to an Idaho college student who fell out of his third-floor window while "mooning" his friends and then decided to sue the college for not providing warnings about the perils of upper-story windows. The watchdog group which sponsored the contest, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch is a non-profit 501 c(4) organization based in Novi, Michigan. It was created in 1997 with the goal to increase public awareness of what it views as the burden of "excessive litigation" is placing on families, job providers and communities in the United (M-LAW M-LAW Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch ), intends to use the Whiplash! Awards every year to expose abuse of our civil justice system much in the same way the Golden Fleece Awards The Golden Fleece Award is presented to those public officials in the United States who the judges feel waste public money. Established in 1975 by William Proxmire, former U.S. expose wasteful government spending Government spending or government expenditure consists of government purchases, which can be financed by seigniorage, taxes, or government borrowing. It is considered to be one of the major components of gross domestic product. . "Lawsuit abuse is a serious issue, but if we can use humor to get America thinking about how these lawsuits are piling costs on families, that's fine with us," said M-LAW President Robert B. Dorigo Jones. According to M-LAW, every American pays a "lawsuit tax" of $1,200 per year, even if not sued. The tax includes the direct cost of the civil justice system along with the cost of lost jobs and higher consumer prices. Editors: For more information about these and other lawsuits, visit www.mlaw.org. |
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