I’ll keep this post short, writing little more than my insistence that if you watch no other documentary this year, you make the time to watch Hot Coffee. The film debuts on HBO, Monday, June 27, 2011, at 9 pm EDT. It will play on the pay-cable channel through the summer, and it will also soon be available on DVD.
In the film, long-time personal injury attorney-turned-director Susan Saladoff details the difficulty victims of corporate negligence and doctors’ mistakes face when seeking justice for injuries, disabilities and mental suffering. A commentator quoted at the end of the trailer for Hot Coffee sums up the experience of every personal injury plaintiff this way: "Going to court to gain justice is heroic."
Hot Coffee takes its names from the early 1990s case Liebeck v. McDonald’s in which an 81-year-old woman received an award of nearly $3 million after being severely burned by spilled coffee she had purchased from one of the fast food giant’s restaurants. Often cited by proponents of so-called "tort reform" as the ultimate example of a frivolous lawsuit that makes it expensive and difficult for corporations to innovate and operate at a profit, the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit actually illustrates how people harmed by defective products — in that case, overheated liquid in an overfilled and poorly designed cup — must have recourse to civil courts to ensure they can physically and financially recover from their injuries.
I’ve written elsewhere about the injustice and hypocrisy inherent in calls for tort reform. Making it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to sue companies, health care professionals or individuals for causing injuries or wrongful deaths is unconstitutional, if nothing else. But mine is just one voice from a fairly small Virginia and Carolina personal injury law firm. I hope that Hot Coffee will lead millions more to see the ugly truth behind tort reform movements.
EJL
About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
One Comment
kathy
I loved Hot Coffee and learned a lot from it.
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