Coffee, Tea, or Two Million Dollars?
- Mark Bradbury
- Jun 13, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 26
By Mark Bradbury
Most of you reading this will remember the hot coffee case that changed the way US courts looked at civil cases. Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's coffee case and the hot coffee lawsuit, was a highly publicized 1994 product liability lawsuit in the United States against the McDonald's restaurant chain.
Quick summary: A woman had purchased a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s Drive Through and while attempting to remove the cover she spilled the entire cup of coffee in her lap, causing her to receive 3rd degree burns on her pelvic area and buttocks. She had initially asked McDonald’s to cover her damages, medical expenses and aftercare, which totaled around $20,000 at the time. They refused, she hired an attorney and by the time the dust had cleared, McDonald’s ended up paying somewhere around $2 million dollars!
