Sitting Duck Asset Protection

All cases listed below are based on real life events taken from US and Australian sources.

• A vandal is hit in the head while hanging out of a train scribbling graffiti and sues the rail authority for allowing him to open the window in the first place.
• A man walks home after an eight-hour drinking session, falls down a 10 metre cliff and demands $1million from the local council for negligence.
• A woman breaks her arm on a childrens slide after ignoring warning signs at a play centre and is awarded $9000 in damages - but sues for $80,000 more.
• In a study in 1995 it was found Americans pay almost $A300 billion a year to support the civil justice system which is overwhelmed with product liability lawsuits.
• Manufacturers impose 'lawsuit tax' sometimes up to 95% to cover everything from absurdly obvious warning labels to the cost of future lawsuits. Absurd warning labels become the norm.
• High school student files a $A2million suit against a baseball bat maker after he was injured during a baseball match.
• Jogger sues Nike for $A20million claiming wrist injury which threatens her career after she tripped over her shoelaces while jogging.
• A heat gun and paint remover that produces temperatures of 1,000 degrees and warns users, “Do not use this tool as a hair dryer” is identified as the wackiest warning label.
• Warning label on a baking pan: “Ovenware will get hot when used in oven.”
• Drunken partier sues police for not arresting her.
• Spilled coffee was too hot, litigant requests $62,500 in damages
• A homeowning couple sues local business claiming dust, noise and vibrations are trespassing
• Homeowners were sued for more than $25,000 by cleaning lady who stole a firecracker and lit it whilst dining with friends, believing it was a candle
• When a man let his two dogs out of his house, they began chasing something and ran across neighbor's property. When the dog owner chased his dogs over the neighbor's property, he injured himself when he stepped into a snow-covered fence post hole and fell. He sued the property owner for negligence. The Appeals Court agreed with the lower court's decision to dismiss the case saying that since the man was trespassing, the owner of the property was not required to make sure his property was safe from people falling in the snow-covered hole.
• Slip on Potatoe-like substance has man suing for $750,000
• Prankster smeared glue on toilet seat - man demands $3,000,000 in damages
• OHS - court ruling - chain of responsibility widens. Employers have responsibility to ensure safe working environment for employees (sub subees) who they have no control over and often are not even aware exist!
• Tenant awarded $1.2m payout for back injury after tripping on a hole in the carpet.
• Court upholds $2.6m payout to man hit by golf ball in charity game.
• Woman awarded $300,000 after friend lost control and ran over her in a golf cart
• Loggers to pay $133,000 to protesters for mental stress
• In 1936 the Income Tax Assessment Act was 81 pages. It is now 8500 pages.
• Man abondones wife and family, but returns 22yrs later to claim wife's estate.
• Office christmas party comment costs $A2.56million
• Stockbroking firm in US pays $75million to settle female discrimination claims
• Convicted offender calls for legal representation after suffering frostbite while on the run from police.
• Two men set fire to their own store in the hope of collecting insurance. They then sue their insurance company after the fire spread to the building next door.
• A prisoner sued the jail for failing to provide a decent diet. The convict was demanding damages for excessive flatulence suffered whilst in the lockup.
• Label on a kitchen knife that warns: “Never try to catch a falling knife.”
• Warning on a cocktail napkin. The napkin has a map of the waterways around Hilton Head, South Carolina printed on it along with this: “Caution: Not to be used for navigation.”
• A passenger on a city bus tries to cash in after minor accident, in which the bus did not even move, yet she claimed to have been thrown around the bus.
• Woman in wheelchair using wrong enterance ramp is struck in the head by parking gate. The woman sued the makers of the gate.
• A six year-old plaintiff was awarded nothing from an Oakland County jury for his lawsuit against a swing manufacturer that he alleged had a faulty design. The child allegedly fell off a swing at a public park because the seat was wobbly and loose. However the manufacturer testified that the swing was over twenty years old and that it had been altered, in particular the lock washers that kept the seat stable were missing.
• Woman sues 12yr old girl after she collided with her on a public ice skating rink.

The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, ever since, the name "Stella Award" has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits. You can subscribe by e-mail for free to get the true reports at www.stellaawards.com as they're issued.
Quote: "Yes, we mean to be entertaining. But there's also a deeper consideration that we'll be addressing:
are the people involved in the cases we present to you (a juror in the Court of Public Opinion) using the courts to redress justifiable grievances that can't otherwise be settled? ...Or are they trying to extort money from anyone they can? Are the lawyers involved champions of justice? ...Or are they helping to abuse the system in the name of getting a piece of the action? You be the judge!"