A Lawsuit Rant

Lawsuits against "Big Tobacco" have always angered me. Lawyers in these cases use emotional discourse in order to convince ignorant juries to fine cigarette corporations millions of dollars; in doing so, they make lots of money for themselves. A 1999 Florida jury ruled that "the five largest tobacco companies acted with 'reckless disregard' by selling [their] product to Florida smokers, while 'misrepresenting information relating the health effects of cigarette smoking.'" Juries do not seem to consider the fact that the people who went through the suffering and/or death were injured at their own discretion; no one forced them to smoke cigarettes. Since at least the early 1900's, the risk of death and illness due to smoking has been well established; a surgeon general's warning has been manditorily printed on packs of tobacco products for decades. These lawsuits are nothing but an opportunity for unscrupulous lawyers to make money.

Such lawsuits in recent years have served to "open the door" to similar ridiculous suits against gun manufacturers. In November of 2002, the widow of a man killed at school by a 13 year-old with a stolen weapon won such a lawsuit against the gun's manufacturer. The question that needed consideration in this case was, simply, whether it was the distributer's fault that this person stole a gun and committed a crime. Based on the outcome of the case, it seems that this question was surely not addressed.

Lawsuits against "Big Food" are now a growing trend. Caesar Barber, a 5'10" man weighing around 270 lbs is just one of several people who are suing the fast food companies. ABC News quotes the man as stating, "they never explained to me what I was eating." I find that statement to be highly suspect. I know for a fact that all of the fast food places in my area have signs posted on their walls saying that one need only ask to receive a free sheet of paper containing nutrition facts on all the restaurant's products; if I'm not mistaken, it is against the law not to offer such nutrition information; this information is also posted on fast food companies' websites. If Barber had acutally been concerned about his nutrition, he could have accessed this information at any time with very little effort. In addition, it is common knowledge that greasy, salty foods are bad for you. It seems unbelievable that a person, in this age of information, could have gone on so long without gleaning this information from some source. It boils down to this: No one forced him to eat that junk. When will the American people wake up and end this madness? And what ever happened to individual responsibility?