The Impact Of The McDonald’s ‘Hot Coffee’ Case On Its 30th Anniversary
There are still things to learn about the Liebeck v. McDonald’s case, even three decades after it was decided.
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Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
Probably one of the most sustaining impacts of this case is about the power of culture. The popular interpretation of this case is pretty far removed from kind of serious issues of how our system operates. Do tort awards deter corporate misconduct? And what are the purposes for which we should be awarding punitive damages? To me, those are really interesting, difficult legal issues, but they’re completely obscured by a kind of popular legend version of this case.
— Professor Catherine Sharkey of the New York University School of Law, in comments given to David Folkenflik of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, on the importance of the Liebeck v. McDonald’s case on its 30th anniversary.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
