About 4
The hot coffee in the lap thing is often a half-told story. The reason why the woman was given so much compensation was because a number of people had been scalded by McDonalds coffee previously and McDonalds had been warned about it on each occasion.

The problem was, McDonalds had worked out that the amount of money they saved of coffee by super-heating the water was more than they would have to pay out in your average compensation claim. The huge fine the received (which is why it hit the news) was the courts way of saying "you can't just ignore safety rules and pay off the victims, here's a fine that actually hurts".

Still, wouldn't have happened if she had of been careful.
(ScousersPet, Tue 6 May 2008, 11:56, Reply)