TIL a man once sued McDonalds for $1.5 million because of "emotional distress" he suffered after receiving just 1 napkin with his meal.

It usually doesn't. A judge can just dismiss a lawsuit if it has no merit. There's a widespread belief that outrageous lawsuits commonly result in ridiculous payouts. This perception is fueled by corporate lobbies under the guise of 'tort reform' because limiting seventh amendment rights is good for corporations, if they can't be sued easily then they can do whatever without fear of consequence. Certain cases have been cited as frivolous that really aren't, one of the most famous of these is the case of Liebeck v. McDonalds Restaurant, where a woman sued after dropping hot coffee from McDonalds on her lap. What almost never gets mentioned is that she received third degree burns (I've seen the pictures it's super gnarly) and had to pay upwards of $20,000 in medical bills before she brought the suit. The coffee in question was something like 190 degrees and the lids were flimsy and came off easily, as a result of the lawsuit McDonalds were required to change the lids, make sure coffee was kept at more sensible temperature, and they had to award an undisclosed amount of money (less than $600,000). This case was widely publicized and mocked as frivolous even though a woman was permanently disfigured in a fairly horrific and painful manner. There's a good documentary about it and some similar cases called 'hot coffee' that I can't recommend enough. Whether something similar pertains to this case is hard to say without knowing more and certainly a lot of frivolous lawsuits do happen but they can just be dismissed. Another mechanism to avoid having courts spend time on that is 'Arbitration' but the way arbitration is done in the U.S. makes it pretty easy for a corporate entity to abuse the process.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - businessinsider.com