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21 Feb

Crazy Personal Injury Cases

The 3 Strangest Personal Injury Cases in History

We’ve all heard of them. The outrageous personal injury cases that make news headlines. As funny as some of these cases may seem, you’d be surprised to know these cases are based on actual law.

Despite the fact that some of the claims are ridiculous, these plaintiffs actually received a lot of money. They found a lawyer to take their case and file a lawsuit. Surprisingly, the four plaintiffs in this article actually won their cases. 

Reading about these cases may be entertaining. But it also shows you how particular the letter of the law can be. If you’ve been in any sort of accident in Ohio, you may have a valid claim against the responsible parties and be due financial compensation for your damages. 

A personal injury attorney will meet with you during your initial consultation. If he thinks you may have a valid claim, he’ll agree to represent you. Lawyers don’t take cases that aren’t legitimate. They don’t want to spend hours or months working on a case that doesn’t have a shot at winning. 

Here is a look at 3 of the most shocking personal injury claims…

Lieback v. McDonald’s

Most people have heard of the famous McDonald’s case where the woman sued over a cup of hot coffee. Stella Lieback was a 79 year old woman who went through the McDonald’s drive thru. She was a passenger in the back seat. She ordered a coffee. She put the coffee between her knees so she could open it. The coffee was so hot, the cup melted, causing her to suffer 3rd degree burns to her private area. 

Ms Lieback sued McDonalds for her injuries. She initially said she would settle for $20,000. McDonalds offered her $8,000. Her personal injury attorney decided to take the case to trial. The jury awarded her $200,000, and since the jury found she was 20% at fault, she only received $160,000.

However, since McDonald’s was well aware their coffee was too hot. There had been 700 people hurt in previous scalding incidents. Therefore, the jury ordered McDonald’s to pay the plaintiff an additional $2.7 million as a punishment! The punitive damages award was later reduced by the court to $480,000.

So a woman was burned by hot coffee and walked away with $640,000… The court based the award around the fact McDonald’s knew their coffee was likely to burn people and did nothing about it. 

The Trapped Burglar

A man named Terrance Dickinson broke into someone’s home with the intention of robbing them. Once in the garage, he realized the doors were all locked and he couldn’t get out. The automatic garage door isn’t working either so he was trapped in the garage. 

The homeowners were out of town and didn’t come home until more than a week later. So for 8 days, Dickinson was trapped inside that garage. He had nothing to survive on except for dog food and Pepsi.

When the family came home 8 days later, they found the burglar in their garage. He was arrested. But in a strange twist of fate, Dickinson sued the homeowner for being trapped. The court actually found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded him $500,000.

This case is complained about all the time. Experienced attorneys simply can’t imagine why a homeowner would be ordered to pay damages to someone that broke into their house. 

Botched Suicide in NYC

This case is the most outrageous of them all… A woman in New York City wanted to kill herself. So she laid down on the train tracks of the New York City subway system. Her plan was to get run over by the train so she would die.

Good (or bad) for her, the train ran her over but didn’t kill her. She suffered serious injuries but she lived. Rather than be thankful she survived, she decided to sue the city of New York. 

What is even more shocking is the court actually ruled in her favor. They awarded her 14.1 million for her injuries. So a suicidal woman who attempted to kill herself ended up making the City of New York pay out over $14 million for her botched suicide attempt. 

Call Us to Discuss Your Possible Case

If you have suffered a personal injury in Ohio. you are better off seeking the guidance and professional counsel of an experienced personal injury attorney. 

Attorneys do not accept cases that they don’t think have a shot at winning in the end. But as you see some crazy situations have ended up in millions of dollars paid out for damages to some lucky people. Call us today at (614)-453-0971.

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