This image appears at the top of a recent BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6236585.stm entitled " 'Wacky warnings' rewarded in US" which featured comments from "The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch".
There was a day when people were expected to have common sense or use "average intelligence" even though half of the population has "below average" intellectual capacities. Judges now realize that there are many people who can barely function in civilization who have a place in society and so they allow those who make what seem like ridiculous arguments to win huge settlements.
Would it be better to refuse to sell electronic equipment, anything with moving parts, or anything fragile, not to mention anything that can burn or is explosive, to those who lack the ability to use common sense?
100 years ago, if someone came to a judge and said "they didn't tell me not to put hot coffee in my crotch, so I want more money than most people will make in a lifetime" they would be laughed out of the court room. But with extensive standardized testing, the powers that be know that many people really don't understand, that this isn't a joke and it is not rare.
But even though we have more realistic, albeit somewhat humbling, expectations, what should we do?
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"WARNING AGAINST PUTTING PEOPLE IN WASHING MACHINE WINS TOP PRIZE
IN M-LAW's TENTH ANNUAL WACKY WARNING LABEL CONTEST"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6236585.stm
"...a spokesperson from the washing machine maker whose label bagged top prize, said its warning is valid.
"A front loader (washing machine) is just at the right height - speaking now as a mother and not a corporate spokeswoman - for a four-year-old," said Patti Andresen Shew of Alliance Laundry Systems.
She said other companies had been sued after small children had climbed into washing machines which had then been started. "
I fell in a theater, messed up my foot bad... 2 months later it is still hurting and swollen.. but I am not sueing. It was my own fault for not paying attention.