Review: HBO's Hot Coffee June 27, the tort reform screw job

By April MacIntyre Jun 27, 2011, 6:22 GMT

Another case you will learn of is Colin Gourley. Colin was born with cerebral palsy because of medical malpractice at birth. He received a $5.65 million award at trial to cover his medical expenses, but because of a Nebraska state-mandated cap on damages he could only collect $1.25 million, an amount that will not cover a lifetime of care. The film shows how dramatically different his life is compared to that of his identical twin brother, Connor.

HBO Documentary "Hot Coffee" is a mandatory must see film airing Monday June 27.

Filmmaker Susan Saladoff carefully builds the case of how big business of every stripe, aided and abetted by the GOP war machine and the Chamber of Commerce lobbyists, have deconstructed consumers' rights and hamstrung those seeking redress in the courts for injury under the misleading rally cry of "frivolous lawsuits."

The film shows how in Texas, where injury non-economic damages awarded to plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuit are at capped at $250,000, yet the costs to consumers in insurance premiums and malpractice insurance costs to doctors both have climbed up since the state took Draconian measures with Texas' infamous Prop 12 to curb payouts.

Director and producer Saladoff spent twenty-five years practicing law in the civil justice system, representing injured victims of individual and corporate negligence. She stopped practicing law in 2009 to make this film.

In HBO’s ‘Hot Coffee,’ we see how one case, the infamous McDonald’s coffee case, was Macguyvered by the GOP PR machine and lobbyists for Big Business to convince John Q Public this was the straw breaking the corporate camel's back.

Except when you hear the facts of the Stella Liebeck case, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, and see the pictures of the horror that was her extensive injury, you will understand how we judge so quickly without understanding the whole of the picture.

McDonald's was in the wrong, and there were 800+ people like Stella, injured before her, that never made it to court. 

Stella was the 79-year-old woman who horribly burned her upper legs and groin when she spilled a 49-cent cup of coffee purchased at a McDonald’s drive-through in Albuquerque 19 years ago.

She sued to cover her medical costs, but a jury awarded her $2.86 million in punitive damages.

Saladoff asks people on the street about Stella, the lady who spilled the coffee on herself. Everyone believes Liebeck’s case was a total milking on the plaintiff’s part. Then Saladoff shows them them the horrific photos of Liebeck’s burned legs and privates. Instantly, people change their mind.

McDonald's ceded that their coffee standing temperature of 180-190 degrees was too hot, and now have it 10 degrees lower per their franchise manual.

Hot Coffee Premieres on HBO, Monday, June 27 at 9 PM (E/P)/8 PM (C) 

Another case you will learn of is Colin Gourley. Colin was born with cerebral palsy because of medical malpractice at birth. He received a $5.65 million award at trial to cover his medical expenses, but because of a Nebraska state-mandated cap on damages he could only collect $1.25 million, an amount that will not cover a lifetime of care. The film shows how dramatically different his life is compared to that of his identical twin brother, Connor.

Another thread in this doc is that of Oliver Diaz. When state Supreme Courts were holding caps on damages unconstitutional, Karl Rove and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce masterminded a national campaign to unseat judges who stood in the way of “tort reform.”

Hot Coffee explores the story of former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, whose life was fictionalized in John Grisham’s book, The Appeal. Grisham is interviewed for this doc; Karl Rove declined to speak on camera.

When big business interests couldn’t beat Justice Oliver Diaz in his re-election to the Mississippi Supreme Court, despite millions of dollars spent on advertising, they found a way to have him criminally prosecuted on false charges, tainting his reputation and causing political hardship for years to come.

The most shocking story for me was that of Jamie Leigh Jones, a victim of the success of the tort reform movement and the implementation of mandatory arbitration contracts.

Jones was lied to about her housing arrangements in Iraq, and at age 19 was put in male bunks. She was drugged and gang raped by co-workers when working in Iraq as a private contractor for KBR/Halliburton.

When criminal charges could not be filed, she sought to hold Halliburton accountable for their misconduct, but a forced arbitration clause buried in her employment agreement meant she lost her right to a jury trial.

While documenting Jamie’s story, the film follows Senator Al Franken’s first bill in the U.S. Senate, in which he successfully prohibited mandatory arbitration clauses passed for sexual assault in government contracts. This month she gets her trial against Halliburton, thanks to Franken's bill passing.

Civil law, and our right to a jury trial, has been under attack for about 25 years according to filmmakers.

Big business interests have won in the hearts and minds of average people who do not realize they vote against their own interests, thinking "freeloaders" have swamped the system and the majority of lawsuits are frivolous, until it happens to them.

The GOP / Chamber of Commerce machine uses out right lies, anecdotes, half-truths in their efforts to limit people’s access to the court system, the one and only place where an average citizen can go toe to toe with those with money and power and still have a shot at justice.

The threat of this recourse, combined with government regulation and oversight helps keeps our food, cars, toys and workplace safe.

Jurors have been led to believe that a large verdict will affect their pocketbooks. Voters believe that we have a court system out of control that needs reforming. Although there are consumer advocacy groups who have attempted to set the story straight, there has yet to be enough money to launch the kind of public relations campaign for consumers that can even begin to combat and challenge the public relations campaigns of pro-business and tort reform groups.

For those who scream about tort reform, who view all potential plaintiffs as cheats, the most damning interviews come from those who are conservative and who voted for these civil law erosions, not realizing what they signed away in their own time of need.

(90 minutes) airs Monday at 9 p.m.
on HBO.

HBO House Party and USEFUL links to educate and consumer help organizations  http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/takeaction-5/