2011: The Legal Year In Review (Not)

Now that 2011 is done and dusted let's review the legal year.

Okay, I'm bored just thinking about that. Let's instead examine what the craziest lawsuits of 2011 were.

How about the college student who sued a hooker for $US1.8 million, because she didn't spend enough time with him? He claimed she left half an hour early, so he demanded his $275 back, plus $1.8 million because the "tragic event" had left him "disturbed". When he originally complained to cops he was almost arrested for prostitution offences.

Or the North Carolina couple who sued an airline for US$100,000, claiming that they saw cockroaches on a flight. They claimed the sight of cockroaches crawling out of an air vent "caused great distress," and forced them to throw away clothing in their luggage for fear of roach contamination.

What about the moviegoer who sued the studio that distributed the movie Drive, because the movie had "very little driving"?

Or the kidnapper who sued his victims when they ran away.  Kansas man Jesse Dimmick claimed that when a couple accepted his knife-point offer to hide in their house from the police in return for cash, they formed an oral contract with him, which he claimed they breached by running away when he slept.

Or the black woman who sued the police after they arrested her, cuffed her, put her in their car, and forced her to listen to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh making derogatory comments about black people.

Or the woman who sued Walmart for overcharging her by two cents. She won and was awarded $100 in damages and $80 in costs.

Or the kids who sued their mother because she did outrageous things, like demanding they be home by midnight, sending them greeting cards without presents, failing to set up sufficient college funds for them, and (outrage!) daring to change her own name after her second marriage. Surprise surprise, their attorney was the woman's ex-husband and their father. Somewhat less surprising, their case was chucked out.

Or the man who sued his wedding photographer because the photographer failed to capture some of the important moments of the wedding. That's not the weird bit. The weird bit is the plaintiff demanded $48,000 to enable him to recreate the wedding and have the event re-shot by another photographer, even though the couple had by then divorced and his wife had returned to Latvia, and the plaintiff didn't even know where she lived.

Or the woman who sued the estate of a man killed by a train, claiming the man's flying body parts injured her.

Yes, 2011 was a very good year for US litigation lawyers.

(h/t Findlaw's Legally Weird blog)