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    The 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011

    LiveScience.com – Sat, Dec 31, 2011

    We've all heard about crazy lawsuits and 2011 was no exception when it came to the filing of frivolous – even ridiculous – lawsuits.

    A lawsuit by a kidnapper against his victims for not helping him evade police tops the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform’s (ILR) survey of the Top Ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011, released today.

    "While these lawsuits vary from the outrageous to the humorous, abusive litigation is hardly a laughing matter," said ILR President Lisa Rickard. "ILR's annual poll of ridiculous lawsuits helps to remind us that abusive lawsuits affect real people and real businesses, and can have harmful results to lives, jobs, and even our economic growth."

    ILR announced the top ten vote-getters from among those chosen throughout the year by visitors to the FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org website. The lawsuits were selected from those featured in the website's monthly polls for 2011. The Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign is ILR's public awareness effort created to highlight the impact of abusive lawsuits on small businesses, communities, and individuals.

    The top ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2011 are:

    •Convict sues couple he kidnapped for not helping him evade police

    •Man illegally brings gun into bar, gets injured in a fight, then sues bar for not searching him for a weapon

    •Young adults sue mother for sending cards without gifts and playing favorites

    •Woman disagrees with store over 80-cent refund, sues for $5 million

    •Mom files suit against exclusive preschool over child's college prospects

    •Man suing for age discrimination says judge in his case is too old

    •Obese man sues burger joint over tight squeeze in booths

    •Woman sues over movie trailer; says not enough driving in "Drive"

    •Passenger's lawsuit says cruise ship went too fast and swayed from side to side

    •Mother sues Chuck E. Cheese – says games encourage gambling in children

    Links to the full news stories from which these were drawn and the complete results of the poll can be found on the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse web site.

    This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience.

     
    • Gene
      Gene  •  5 mths ago
      These are totally frivilous suits and should be thrown out by the judge with a hefty fine placed on the idiots that filed them.
      • j
        j 5 mths ago
        lawyers or not,,, its the judge that you voted in that awards the cash.
      • Agent P
        Agent P 5 mths ago
        Not totally true. Some of the suits are settled by a jury.
      • Darrell
        Darrell 5 mths ago
        Maybe i missed it but I'm not sure if these actually went to "court" or not. They might have just been filed and then turned down. If they actually were allowed to make it to court then it is probably because a few judges were bored and needed a good laugh.
    • RoyR
      RoyR  •  5 mths ago
      You just can't fix stupid.
      • Joe
        Joe 5 mths ago
        how about with a bullet?
      • Will's figment
        Will's figment 5 mths ago
        Power makes one stupid. And when power reaches a certain level (becomes stupid enough) it replicates itself. Stupid is here to stay.
      • Kygon
        Kygon 5 mths ago
        @Joe Violence is never the answer, unless the question is "What is never the answer?".
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Groton, Connecticut  •  5 mths ago
      For every one of those lawsuits there is an attorney who should be disbarred for wasting public time, money, and court use.
      • Robert
        Robert 5 mths ago
        And the judges should be removed for letting those attorney's to even bring a case like that to the court.
      • dra40gon
        dra40gon 5 mths ago
        Disbar is too good for them, If I was a judge, I'd slap them with a million dollar fine for wasting the courts time and maybe even some jail time, these guys not only waste the courts time but end up costing everyone who might be purchasing a product from one of these companies who spend bundles to fight these useless lawsuits and they will have to recoop the loss by raising prices.
      • collaxion
        collaxion 5 mths ago
        For every one of these lawsuits, there are 10,000 abuses of justice perpetrated by the Chamber of Commerce's corporate and insurance clients, ensuring that truly damaged individuals are denied just recompense. But you won't hear the Chamber trumpeting any of those cases, at least not to the public. Privately they chortle about how they screwed the little guy again. . . and again. . . and again. . .
    • steve
      steve  •  5 mths ago
      You can sue anybody for anything...the question i have is what Judge would agree to listen to any of these cases?
      • boatfreak9948
        boatfreak9948 5 mths ago
        Judges are crooks too. Lets not get started on the lawyers, too easy of a target.
      • QQ
        QQ 5 mths ago
        It has to get to a judge before it can be thrown out by a judge. How can they be tossed out of court before then?
      • sfb5761
        sfb5761 5 mths ago
        That's why sharks don't kill lawyers -- professional courtesy.
    • LARRY
      LARRY  •  Reno, Nevada  •  5 mths ago
      If the world is still here on 12/22/12, I'm going to sue the Mayans.
      • Loretta
        Loretta 5 mths ago
        LMAO
      • Dean
        Dean 5 mths ago
        Good luck on that. Considering the fact that they couldn't even predict thier own demise
      • crystal
        crystal 5 mths ago
        if the spanish hadnt come and wiped them out maybe they could have finished their calander.
    • jason
      jason  •  Las Vegas, Nevada  •  5 mths ago
      How about we start making the Lawyers that took these cases pay all of the costs of litigation. If its a real case of wrongdoing and you believe in it OK but some of these are so eggregious someone needs to pay for it. May as well be the Lawyers. No stupid Lawyers no stupid cases.
    • G_dalebarbie
      G_dalebarbie  •  Hood River, Oregon  •  5 mths ago
      Here's a solution....if it's thrown out because it's clearly a frivolous lawsuit, (determined by a jury if they want to take it that far) I think the person bringing the action should have to pay for the court's time AND for the defense attorney if it goes that far.... That would make people think twice and yet not make reasonable minded people afraid of reasonable lawsuit actions. .....I wonder if the geniuses that run the system will figure that out
    • Raymond
      Raymond  •  Indianapolis, Indiana  •  5 mths ago
      No comment, I don't want to get sued by any boneheads
    • A Yahoo! User  •  St Louis, Missouri  •  5 mths ago
      Common sense is not so common any more.
    • Yankee,Go Home.
      Yankee,Go Home.  •  Owensboro, Kentucky  •  5 mths ago
      And they wonder why we have NO faith in the legal system.
    • oumard
      oumard  •  Fontana, California  •  5 mths ago
      i am going to sue myself for reading this article.
    • Lawrence
      Lawrence  •  Englewood, Colorado  •  5 mths ago
      I want to sue Mother Nature for allowing so many stupid people to be born...
    • Yahoo User
      Yahoo User  •  Atlanta, Georgia  •  5 mths ago
      Tell lawyers---you bring a frivolous lawsuit in to court and you lose the case you get fined $1,000,000. Guarantee that these lawsuits would go down 99%.
    • ̀̀♀
      ̀̀♀  •  5 mths ago
      Woman sues over movie trailer; says not enough driving in "Drive" What does that even mean????
    • P NUT
      P NUT  •  5 mths ago
      I wanna sue McDonalds cuz their big mac is too small! Think I got a chance?
    • Richard
      Richard  •  Cleveland, Ohio  •  5 mths ago
      the lawyers that file these lawsuits should loose there right to pratice law for ever
    • mike
      mike  •  Elmhurst, Illinois  •  5 mths ago
      After reading this, I am more convinced than ever that as a nation, we are f&^%$#.
    • RichardT
      RichardT  •  5 mths ago
      What no one is told is that EVERY judge in the country has the right/authority to thorw out, dismiss, any lawsuit the court beleives to be frivolous/foolish, thereby eliminating such abuses. So why these kind of lawsuits make it to court? Because every judge in the country was, before they became a judge, a LAWYER; and as such knows full well his fellow layers, practicing in court before him, will make $$$ off the case, regardless how ridiculous it is, regardless of who wins, or even if the case is eventually thrown out.Blame most of these kind of STUPID cases on the judicial system; and then secondly on the greedy #$%$ lawyers who take them on. I mean,.....WHAT freaking court judge would take seriously, and permit a criminal to SUE the people he took hostage?
    • ctc
      ctc  •  Clinton Twp, Michigan  •  5 mths ago
      I'd like to know how you get 5 million over an .80 cent refund.
    • LARGE-CAR
      LARGE-CAR  •  Niagara Falls, New York  •  5 mths ago
      I want to sue myself for all the wrong choices i made that forced me to work all my life.....
     Post a comment
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