Everyone likes to win a Jackpot!
Everyone likes to get that one lottery which they assume will make them set for life! The jackpot which can solve all the problems in their life!
Then have you heard of Jackpot Justice!? or the Trouser Lawsuit!?
They are both true and real terms! As you read you will get to know some fish may have shell! But it is the human who is selfish!
So “Jackpot justice” is a pejorative term used to describe a legal system that allegedly encourages plaintiffs and trial lawyers to seek massive, outsized monetary awards—often through punitive damages or class actions—that are disproportionate to the actual harm suffered.
These are awards that go far beyond “making the victim whole” and are viewed as a windfall or “jackpot” for the plaintiff!
Critics argue that juries impose these awards without consistent reasoning or clear legal guidelines while proponents of this view claim it acts as an “excess tort tax” on the economy, leading to higher consumer prices and fewer jobs!
If you think that this is silly then you must read about the Trouser lawsuit! The ridiculousness of this lawsuit will amaze and shock you and then really bowl you over when you realize that it was done by a judge!
So in 2005, Roy L. Pearson Jr., then an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., sued Custom Cleaners, a local family-owned business run by the Chung family, claiming they lost a pair of his trousers!
So your pants are lost or maybe damaged! What would any person with a grain of humanity do?
Leave it be or take some store credit or get a new pant!
What did the Judge do?
He sued them!
Not for a hundred or even a thousand dollars! But for; hold your breath; 67 million dollars!
Pearson initially sought $67 million, later reduced to $54 million; so much for small mercies! Microscopic mercy actually!
He argued that the shop’s “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service” signs were legally binding promises that the business failed to meet! Pearson calculated the astronomical sum by applying D.C. consumer protection laws, claiming thousands of dollars for every day the signs were displayed over several years, plus damages for “mental suffering” and car rental fees to visit a different cleaner! You would think a different cleaner was located in MARS!
If this was a banana republic then the Judge would have even won! He fought the trial himself and even cried a little in the MEMORY of his missing PANTS!
Luckily that particular court was ruled by a HUMANE judge! In 2007, a D.C. Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the dry cleaners, stating that no reasonable consumer would interpret the advertising slogans as an unlimited guarantee to meet any demand at any cost!
Now now; more good news for humanity! Following the trial, a panel recommended that Pearson not be reappointed as a judge due to a lack of “judicial temperament” demonstrated by the lawsuit. He ultimately lost his job in 2007!
Unfortunately despite winning, the financial and emotional toll on the Chung family was severe. They closed two of their three shops during the litigation. Public donations and fundraisers eventually helped them cover more than $100,000 in legal fees. But they were the ones with the actual mental trauma!
This case is widely cited in law schools as a cautionary tale of “jackpot justice” and helped inspire movements for tort reform and judicial accountability!
So the next time your cleaner misplaces your pant! Stop panting for jackpot justice! Get store credit or another pant!
If the pants aren’t dry don’t cry! Which reminds me of the crying but sentimental mother of Hindi movies; Nirupa Roy!
Now stop thinking about Jackpots and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
ramadocblog 