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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Near-Earth asteroid passes over Atlantic Ocean 27 Jun 2011 UPDATE 2-Wildfire reaches US Los Alamos nuclear facility 27 Jun 2011 Gay marriage foes appeal ruling on gay U.S. judge 27 Jun 2011 Lady Gaga sued over Japan earthquake charity bracelets 27 Jun 2011 US Supreme Court to decide police GPS tracking case 27 Jun 2011 Discussed 221 Biden deficit-cut talks hit impasse: Rep. Cantor 138 CBO sees government benefits swamping U.S. economy 112 Fragile economy pushed Obama to tap oil reserves Watched A Tokyo-Paris flight in under three hours on the horizon Fri, Jun 24 2011 Hefner's revenge; Ryan Reynolds stops traffic Fri, Jun 17 2011 Supreme Court: Game on! Mon, Jun 27 2011 "Hot Coffee" shows other side of "frivolous" lawsuits Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Supreme Court rejects generic drug labeling suits Thu, Jun 23 2011 Wal-Mart wins Supreme Court sex-bias ruling Mon, Jun 20 2011 UPDATE 4-Wal-Mart wins in sex-bias case at top US court Mon, Jun 20 2011 Supreme court rejects global warming lawsuit Mon, Jun 20 2011 Ex-presidential hopeful John Edwards charged over affair Fri, Jun 3 2011 Analysis & Opinion Thailand in July? Transcript of Carlos Ghosn interview Related Topics Entertainment » Fashion » Film » Susan Saladoff, director of the HBO documentary film ''Hot Coffee'' poses for a portrait during an interview with Reuters in New York, June 21, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar By Leigh Jones NEW YORK | Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:47pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - It was the case that launched a thousand jokes. The McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit almost 15 years ago came to represent for most people everything that's wrong with the American civil justice system -- a plaintiff with a serious shortage of common sense, a huge windfall in damages and a waste of everyone's time. Except that it wasn't any of those things -- at least according to an HBO documentary, "Hot Coffee", produced and directed by personal injury attorney Susan Saladoff. "Hot Coffee", which debuts on Monday, seeks to dispel the notion that U.S. courts are flooded with frivolous lawsuits and greedy lawyers. It focuses on four people who have been left in financial and emotional straits by caps on punitive damages and mandatory arbitration. In 1992, Stella Liebeck, 79, was sitting in a parked car, trying to put cream and sugar in a cup of McDonald's coffee when it spilled on her, causing third-degree burns. She initially won a $2.9 million award which was later reduced to $480,000. Liebeck eventually settled for an undisclosed amount. Reuters spoke with Saladoff about the documentary, which took two years to make and finance and which got its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Q: How did you make the switch in 2009 from lawyer to filmmaker after practicing for 25 years? A: "I kept seeing in the media these distortions, not just about the McDonald's case but about the civil justice system. 'Frivolous lawsuits,' ' greedy trial lawyers,' ' jackpot justice.' Those words were used to play on people's emotions. Nobody talks about frivolous defenses. I kept thinking somebody else was going to deal with it. Then finally I said, 'Ok, it's me.'" Q: So did you just go out and buy a camera? A: "In 2002 I had a very severely brain-injured client. She had almost no short-term memory. When you met her, she looked normal, but if you walked away and came back 15 minutes later, she wouldn't even know she'd ever seen you before. I couldn't explain to the other side what this injury meant for her life. So, I thought, I'm going to get a camera and spend three days with her and see what happens. I realized how effective story telling is through film." Q: How did you finance the film? A: "I raised money person by person, house party by house party. It was all donations. We also used the Independent Feature Project as a sponsor." Q: Do you have any concerns that the film should be more balanced? A: "I do not apologize for having a point of view. Everybody knows the other side. Nobody knows this side. I don't want say that people have to agree with me, but at least open your mind that there's another side of the story." Q: What's your view about frivolous lawsuits? Does the legal system handle them effectively? A: "What is the definition of a frivolous lawsuit? Because what's frivolous to you may not be frivolous to me. Everyone thinks that the McDonald's coffee case is frivolous until they see my film." Q: Do you find anything encouraging about the state of civil justice in America right now? A: "The hope is that people are watching this film and getting angry and wanting to do something. Nobody wants to talk about mandatory arbitration. Nobody wants to talk about tort reform. These words are like blah blah blah, boring boring boring, until something happens to you or a family member or a close friend." (Editing by Jill Serjeant) Entertainment Fashion Film Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Social Stream (What's this?) © Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters Editorial Editions: Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom United States Reuters Contact Us Advertise With Us Help Journalism Handbook Archive Site Index Video Index Reader Feedback Mobile Newsletters RSS Podcasts Widgets Your View Analyst Research Thomson Reuters Copyright Disclaimer Privacy Professional Products Professional Products Support Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Careers Online Products Acquisitions Monthly Buyouts Venture Capital Journal International Financing Review Project Finance International PEhub.com PE Week FindLaw Super Lawyers Attorney Rating Service Reuters on Facebook Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. 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