The legal issues presented in this film are as follows: the effects of the media on citizens to ridicule lawsuits such as Stella Liebeck’s, the effects of limiting the amount of money that can be awarded by a jury in damages to the plaintiff otherwise known as caps on damages, such as the case of Colin Gourley, the corporations’ influence and power in judicial elections as well as the extent they will go to as experienced by Oliver Diaz, and the effects of mandatory arbitration in the work place, battled by Jamie Leigh Jones, as well as in consumers’ lives. All of these issues are presented to the viewer in order to prove an overall point of tort reform. Tort reform should be questioned and researched by citizens the film suggests, by encouraging a…
The legal procedural steps and language were clear in some areas of the documentary. Terms and phrases such as caps on damages, mandatory arbitration, torts, and tort reforms were all explained in the film for the viewers to better understand the issues at hand and why it is important to know these terms. The legal procedures such as criminal and ciil lawsuits were not explained as well since most of these issues were in the past, three fourths of these cases had already been decided on.
For each legal issue the film provided a case or story in order for the viewer to better understand the situations at hand. The first case provided was the case of Stella Liebeck v. McDonald’s, the case of the hot coffee. Mrs. Liebeck’s family thoroughly and genuinely explain the case, differing in facts and tone from the media and tort reform…
