The legal system has seen its fair share of shocking, bizarre, and unexpected lawsuit settlements over the years. From multi-million-dollar payouts to cases that defied all logic, history is filled with courtroom decisions that have left people speechless. Some settlements have righted terrible wrongs, while others have sparked debates about fairness and justice.
In this article, we dive into 50 of the most unbelievable legal settlements ever recorded—cases involving massive corporate payouts, historic rulings, and jaw-dropping compensation amounts. Whether it’s a lottery winner losing it all in divorce court or a fast-food giant paying millions over food poisoning, these legal battles prove that when it comes to lawsuits, almost anything is possible.
1 Record Medical Malpractice Payout
In November 2024, a jury awarded a New Mexico man $412 million in a lawsuit against a men’s health clinic that misdiagnosed him with erectile dysfunction. The clinic unnecessarily administered three penile injections per week, causing irreversible damage. This remains the largest jury-awarded amount in a U.S. medical malpractice case (as of February 2025).
2. DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg sued Disney for $90 million after being fired, despite playing a key role in the studio’s revival in the early 1990s. Since Disney refused to settle, Katzenberg ultimately received $270 million.
3. In 2015, a Seattle man won a $500,000 lawsuit against his neighbor after accusing the neighbor’s dog of “raucously, wildly bellowing, howling, and explosively barking.” The defendant assumed the case was a joke and failed to appear in court.
4. In 2012, a jury awarded a Colorado man $7.27 million in damages after he developed “Popcorn Lung,” a lung disease caused by inhaling fumes from artificial butter flavoring. He had consumed two bags of microwave popcorn daily for 10 years, exposing himself to the toxic chemical in the steam.
5. During the 1980s, Bayer Pharmaceutical knowingly distributed HIV-contaminated blood transfusions to hemophiliacs in countries like France, Spain, and Japan. In 1997, Bayer and three other manufacturers agreed to a $660 million settlement for over 6,000 hemophiliacs infected in the United States, although no Bayer executive faced criminal charges.
6 Birthday Party Lawsuit Win
In 2022, a Kentucky man won a $450,000 lawsuit against his former employer after being fired for having a panic attack and leaving his own surprise birthday party.
7. In 2012, a California high school teacher wrongly assumed that students were not allowed bathroom breaks and instructed a student to urinate in a bucket inside a supply closet. Five years later, a court ordered the school district to pay the student $1.25 million in damages.
8. In 1909, Cadbury won a libel lawsuit against a publication that criticized the company’s delay in ending cacao purchases from countries using slave labor. However, the jury awarded Cadbury only one-fourth of a penny.
9. In 1986, the USFL won an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and received a $1 damages award, which tripled to $3 under antitrust laws. After years of litigation, the NFL eventually paid $3.76 in 1990, covering attorney fees and court costs. The check remains uncashed.
10. In 1996, Disney partnered briefly with Radio AAHS, a popular children’s radio network, only to steal its trade secrets and programming model to create Radio Disney. A jury later found Disney guilty of misconduct and ordered the company to pay $20 million in damages.
11 Radioactive Oatmeal Experiment Lawsuit
In 1998, the Quaker Oats Company and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology agreed to pay $1.85 million to settle a federal lawsuit over an experiment in the 1940s and 1950s in which they fed radioactive oatmeal to boys at a state institution.
12. Following his cycling doping scandal, Lance Armstrong was ordered to pay more than $20 million. However, his financial losses were partially offset by his early investment in Uber in 2009.
13. Eminem’s mother sued him for defamation, seeking $11 million over lyrics that portrayed her negatively. They settled the case for $25,000, but after legal fees, she only received $1,645.75.
14. In 1994, Stella Liebeck sued McDonald’s after spilling hot coffee on her lap, which caused third-degree burns. She initially sought $20,000 to cover medical and living expenses, but the jury awarded her $160,000, along with an additional $640,000 in punitive damages.
15. In 2007, two high school students discovered that Ribena’s claim-“the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges”-was false. Their research revealed that the drink contained almost no vitamin C, while one orange juice brand had over three times more. As a result, the company faced legal action and received a fine of NZ$217,500.
16 State Farm’s Discriminatory ‘Jew List’
In 1993, State Farm paid $145 million in punitive damages after evidence revealed that the company maintained a “Jew list” to discriminate against claimants.
17. A jury awarded $6.1 million to a McDonald’s employee who was tricked into a strip search and sexually assaulted by her manager following a prank call in 2004. The caller, posing as a police officer, convinced managers at various restaurants and grocery stores to conduct extensive strip searches of female employees. Over a ten-year period, more than 70 similar incidents occurred.
18. In 2000, during a British Airways flight from England to Kenya, a mentally ill passenger stormed the cockpit and attempted to hijack the aircraft, nearly causing a crash. As a result, 16 American passengers secured a multi-million-dollar lawsuit settlement, while British passengers received only $2,000 and a free “Fear of Flying” class.
19. In 1997, three men won $19,100 each in a lawsuit after Hooters denied them waiter jobs due to gender discrimination.
20. In 1997, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the United States Department of Agriculture, involving 22,363 Black farmers who faced discrimination between 1981 and 1986. It resulted in a historic $2 billion settlement-the largest of its kind.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Tobacco Company Gave Kids Cigarettes
In the 1960s, a major tobacco company faced legal action for allegedly using company vans to distribute free Newport cigarettes to children in housing projects. A jury ruled against the company, ordering it to pay over $35 million in damages.
22. Before his arrest, Charles Ponzi-the namesake of the Ponzi scheme-successfully sued a newspaper for libel. The paper had questioned how Ponzi could legally deliver such high returns in a short time. He won $500,000 in damages.
23. In 2000, Sony fabricated a movie critic named David Manning and used his fictional quotes to promote films. As a result, Sony paid over $1.5 million to moviegoers in a class-action lawsuit and more than $300,000 to the state of Connecticut, where Manning supposedly worked at a small weekly newspaper.
24. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, pleaded guilty to criminal charges for illegally promoting prescription drugs, failing to report safety data, bribing doctors, and marketing medicines for unapproved uses. In 2012, under prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice, GSK settled for $3 billion (£1.9 billion) in what became the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.
25. Trial attorney Mark Lanier initially offered to settle an asbestos lawsuit against Carborundum for $10,000, but the company refused. The case went to trial, where the jury awarded $118 million in damages.
RE: Fact #2 (Katzenberg’s $270 Million Disney Suit) – He wasn’t actually suing for $90 million; it was just mentioned that he might’ve settled for that much. But I think that was just Mike Ovitz’s take on it.
RE: Fact #14 (Infamous McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit) – The whole McDonald’s thing is way worse than it seems, that’s why the jury hit them so hard. They were total jerks the whole time.
RE: Fact #40 (Dana Carvey’s Malpractice Charity Gift) – So, what did he get for having a girl’s name?
Wow, I’ve only ever met one Dana, and he was a guy.
I only know one Dana, and she’s a girl.
RE: Fact #8 (Cadbury’s Tiny Libel Victory) – That’s a cool 87 billion Aussie dollars today.
RE: Fact #1 (Record Medical Malpractice Payout) – Wow, most medical malpractice claims are just because a doctor messed up, but this feels straight-up criminal.
This Michigan doctor was giving chemo to people who didn’t need it, just to get Medicare money. The crazy thing is, his claims were so obviously fishy that he should’ve been caught years ago. Someone should have looked at the numbers—it would’ve been easy to spot him.
Remember that Virginia case? That doctor got a whopping 59 years for ripping off insurance with unnecessary hysterectomies and other botched surgeries.
This happens way more often than people let on. Medicare and Medicaid fraud? We’re talking at least $100 billion a year, probably double that.
RE: Fact #35 (Taco Bell Chihuahua Copyright Case) – I still have that stuffed dog, and he still squeaks “hey, drop the chalupa” when you squeeze him.
I got this one about needing a bigger box from that Godzilla thing.
My Godzilla promo says “Hey, Lizard Lizard Lizard.”
Seriously, I still say this a lot, even when I’m super busy—accent and all! No one ever understands.
RE: Fact #23 (Sony’s Fake Movie Critic Scandal) – Sony just did what a lot of other companies do, but in a more obvious way.
You might dig this: Sony totally bombed with their PSP viral marketing. Microsoft secretly paid YouTubers to talk up the Xbox One. YouTube caught Universal and Sony with a whopping two billion fake views! Someone was selling Titan runs on reddit. IGN got banned from reddit for rigging votes. That whole e-sports site ban shows how messed up things can get on gaming subreddit on reddit.
RE: Fact #3 (Man Wins Lawsuit Over Barking) – I really dislike noisy neighbors.
RE: Fact #6 (Birthday Party Lawsuit Win) – Suppose he just skipped his surprise party instead of having a panic attack. Was that really grounds for firing him?
Even in states where employers can fire you without a reason, there are still rules. They can’t let you go just because of your race, gender, or disability. He won his case because they fired him for having anxiety.
If he didn’t have anxiety, then yeah, they probably could have fired him for skipping the work thing.
RE: Fact #32 (Conan’s $45M NBC Settlement) – That’s total crap how NBC handled things.
RE: Fact #10 (Disney Stole Radio AAHS Model) – It’s totally messed up how giant corporations like Disney pull these stunts. They get slapped on the wrist with a fine that’s nothing to them, while the other company is basically ruined.
RE: Fact #35 (Taco Bell Chihuahua Copyright Case) – Remember their old slogan, “Run for the border”? That wouldn’t fly today.
It’s pretty spot-on, actually.
Remember Willie Nelson’s awesome song? He was totally broke because his accountants messed up his taxes, and he owed a fortune to the IRS. So, he did a bunch of quick cash grabs to get by.
I wish accounting firms had a clause: “If we mess up, we pay!” But whatever.
RE: Fact #41 (Louie Louie Composer’s Legal Fight) – Is that Chuck and Marvin’s other cousin?
So, get this – he was supposed to play guitar for Marvin on their 50s high school dance tour, but his knee gave out. Then Marvin hurt his hand, some guy called Calvin Klein filled in, and *bam* – wrote “Johnny B. Goode” right there and then! Marvin let Chuck Berry have it after that. Just thought I’d share that little-known fact.
RE: Fact #25 (Rejected $10K Offer, Won $118M) – My grandpa worked with asbestos his whole life, and it really messed up his lungs. He died a long, awful death. He never sued the company, even though they gave him a good life. I’ve always wondered if we should have. We looked after Grandma for ten years before she went to a nursing home. She’s still going strong at almost 99!
I don’t always get that way of thinking. “XYZ company” gave me a good life, but it wasn’t charity – I earned my money. They gave me a job, which was great, but it wasn’t a free ride. And definitely not worth putting workers in danger or giving away things that can’t be replaced.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s easy to say that now, looking back. I’m not sure how he actually felt about his company’s responsibility for his health at the time.
RE: Fact #11 (Radioactive Oatmeal Experiment Lawsuit) – Both sides got fined, so I bet MIT just bought regular oatmeal and zapped it with radiation.
So, Quaker wanted to show their oats were as good as Cream of Wheat, nutrition-wise. Some research suggested that stuff in oats blocked iron absorption, unlike Cream of Wheat. So, Quaker gave MIT some oats to coat with radioactive iron, to see what happened. Turns out, it didn’t affect iron absorption at all.
MIT also did a couple more tests using radioactive calcium in milk and by injection.
The guys who took part only had a slightly higher risk of cancer than usual. The settlement was mainly because they weren’t asked first, not because there was proof of serious harm.
It’s like a really early CT scan, but instead of poisoning someone on purpose, they used radiation to watch what was happening inside the body.
RE: Fact #36 (Nuclear Claims Tribunal Underfunded) – Seriously, that’s a sneaky move… just wait for your creditors to kick the bucket. This is awful, another black mark on the record.
RE: Fact #13 (Eminem’s Mom Wins Pennies) – Cool fact: He couldn’t mention the lawsuit in his music during the trial. After they settled, he put a line in “Without Me” that went, “I just settled all my lawsuits—screw you, Debbie!”
It’s not a big deal; my lawyer, Fred Gibson, is being a jerk. He says I made up my past, and he’s mad I won’t do what he wants. He also insulted the lawyers involved in the lawsuits.
Eminem’s lawyer said to scrub “Fred Gibson’s” name from everything.
He mentions it in “Cleaning Out My Closet” too.
What a selfish jerk! Taking something you didn’t help me get? I hope you rot in hell for that.
RE: Fact #30 (Big Tobacco’s $144.8 Billion Verdict) – It got tossed, but people can still use…
RE: Fact #44 (Ford’s $55M Legal Defeat) – Hey, I used to work for them! I interned there last summer. Jake Krippelz, the guy in charge, passed away a few years back. He died thinking his family had won and would get the money. But the decision got reversed, and the Krippelz family didn’t get a cent of that $55 million—they spent over a million on legal fees battling Ford. They’re a really nice family, good to their employees, and it’s a bummer they lost. There’s more to it if you want to hear it.
RE: Fact #22 (Ponzi Sued Newspaper, Won $500K) – He said investors would double their money in 90 days, or even better, get a 50% return in just 45, by buying cheap postal coupons overseas and cashing them in here for a profit.
That’s total BS.
Even though he was still paying people back – mostly with money from new investors – he hadn’t figured out how to turn those coupons into cash. It turned out to be impossible. Think about it: his first 18 investors put in $1800, and that would have needed 53,000 coupons! With 15,000 investors after that, he’d have needed Titanic-sized ships to get all those coupons from Europe to the US.
Wow, he actually had a plan? That’s pretty interesting.
It looked like a sure thing on paper: buy cheap, sell high. But the catch? He couldn’t actually sell them. He wasn’t a bad guy to begin with, just someone with a plan.
That reminds me of that Seinfeld episode – trying to get all those bottles in New York to get a dime apiece back in Michigan.
That’s how I’m planning to retire!
RE: Fact #15 (Ribena’s Vitamin C Fraud) – Ribena was invented during WWII because Britain couldn’t get any citrus fruits, so they made it with blackcurrants—which grow like weeds in England. These days, though, it’s hardly got any real fruit juice in it.
Ribena’s pretty good, reminds me of Grandma. But let’s be real, it’s mostly sugar.
Does she get purple dye on your clothes?
The recipe’s gone downhill since that dumb sugar tax. Now it tastes awful.
I used to work at the blackcurrant factory for ribenaso, so unless they dump the stuff instead of bottling it, I’m pretty sure there’s real fruit in their drinks.
RE: Fact #14 (Infamous McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit) – I got into a fight with my health teacher once. He said the lawsuit was silly, and the whole class agreed! This post totally makes me feel right.
RE: Fact #22 (Ponzi Sued Newspaper, Won $500K) – Ponzi’s last years were rough. He scraped by doing odd translation jobs, his health went downhill fast. A heart attack in 1941 really weakened him, then his eyesight went, and by 1948 he was practically blind. A stroke paralyzed his right side. He died in a Rio hospital, January 18, 1949.
His only friend, a barber who knew some English and Italian, helped him give one last interview. Ponzi told the reporter, “Even if they didn’t get anything back, it was a steal! I gave ’em the best show they’d ever seen – easily worth fifteen million bucks!”
He basically thinks people should be thankful he took their money. Nice to see some reflection in his later years.
It’s a common scammer trick: they think they deserve your money more than you do.
RE: Fact #45 (MLK Assassination Conspiracy Verdict) – That jury? They based their verdict on gossip, second-hand gossip, and a bunch of other stuff that wouldn’t fly in a real court. They didn’t even hear any evidence *against* the conspiracy theory. The whole thing was a joke.
The official DOJ response is out there, but they were in on it, so take it with a huge pinch of salt. Oh, and one of the witnesses testified anonymously? Yeah, *that’s* believable.
Civil and criminal cases? Totally different ballgames when it comes to proof. Criminal cases need “beyond a reasonable doubt,” but in civil court, it’s just a 51% thing – “more likely than not.” And yeah, like you said, the rules about what counts as evidence are way different too.
RE: Fact #34 (Threesome Death Leads to Lawsuit) – As a doctor, I’m telling all my patients—in writing—to avoid that whole “devil’s three-way” thing with someone who isn’t their wife.
RE: Fact #1 (Record Medical Malpractice Payout) – So, this guy, 66 years old, went to this clinic in 2017 because he was tired and losing weight. They supposedly misdiagnosed him and gave him these “invasive erectile dysfunction shots”— completely unnecessary, and now he’s permanently damaged. One of the lawyers, Nick Rowley, says the clinic was running a scam to rip off older guys, making millions. He even said the clinic staff told patients they’d be screwed if they didn’t get three shots a week.
RE: Fact #15 (Ribena’s Vitamin C Fraud) – That’s a weird thing to cheat on, isn’t it? Vitamin C isn’t exactly hard to find.
Seriously, what a bizarre thing to fake! Total laziness.
I’m guessing they’re just plain incompetent. Black currants have four times the vitamin C of oranges, so they probably messed up their process and lost all that vitamin C. They probably didn’t even bother checking. Usually, people are just dumb; that’s simpler than explaining it as some huge vitamin C ad scam.
RE: Fact #48 (Nicki Minaj Settles Lawsuit) – So, her real last name is Maraj, but it’s pronounced “Mirage”? And she changed it?! Mirage is awesome! Why’d she do that?
Onika Minaj and Onyx Mirage? Both awesome names!
I heard on YouTube the name change was because of industry pressure, and she’s not happy about it.
Early on, Keanu Reeves’ agent pushed him to use a different name – Casey Reeves – because some studio bigwigs thought “Keanu” sounded too foreign. But Keanu wasn’t having it; he ignored the new name at auditions. So they went back to Keanu, which worked out way better.
Whoopi Goldberg
RE: Fact #41 (Louie Louie Composer’s Legal Fight) – Guess what? The lyrics to “Louie Louie” were so messed up, people thought it was full of dirty words! It got so crazy, someone even complained to Bobby Kennedy, and the FBI spent two and a half years looking into it. They figured the words were just gibberish. Weirdly, they talked to everyone except the singer himself.
RE: Fact #37 (Klan Bankrupted in Lynching Case) – So, if that wiped them out, how much did she actually rake in? These kinds of stories often end with the settlement never actually happening.
RE: Fact #25 (Rejected $10K Offer, Won $118M) – My buddy’s a lawyer, and he used to work for a big firm representing victims. They always win, it’s just a matter of how much money they get.
By the time the cancer or whatever asbestos causes shows up, the victim’s usually dead before the case is over. So you get a lot of kids and spouses crying in court, maybe a video of the victim giving their statement before they died.
It’s really sad. These companies knew about the dangers, ignored them, and put people in harm’s way just to make a profit.
RE: Fact #22 (Ponzi Sued Newspaper, Won $500K) – People got suspicious pretty fast because Ponzi’s scheme was growing so quickly. When a Boston reporter called him out on the impossible returns, Ponzi sued and won a huge settlement – $500,000! Back then, the laws made it really hard to prove libel, so that win shut down any serious investigations for a while.
In court, Ponzi told the publisher, “Your attempts to smear me failed. The Ponzi name stands for honesty and integrity.”
RE: Fact #37 (Klan Bankrupted in Lynching Case) – Taking away the Klan’s money and blocking them from banks really hurt them. It made it super hard for them to plan and run any kind of big operation. Cutting off a terrorist group’s access to regular money is key.
Couldn’t they have just moved their stuff to a fake company and said they were broke?
RE: Fact #48 (Nicki Minaj Settles Lawsuit) – Minaj: “Can I use a bit of your music?”
Chapman: “Give me a reason.”
RE: Fact #5 (Bayer’s HIV Blood Scandal) – We’ve talked about this before. The headline isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s a bit misleading.
First off, this all happened in the 80s when we barely understood AIDS and HIV. AIDS was first spotted in the US in ’81, named in ’82, and HIV wasn’t identified until ’83. That’s when people started realizing it might spread through blood, maybe even transfusions.
Plasma producers acted pretty quickly, adding a heating step to kill viruses. They had to get approval before selling it, of course.
The US and Europe got the safer stuff out ASAP. So, you can’t really blame the companies for infections that happened before the new product was available.
What they *can* be blamed for is some boneheads selling off their old, unsafe stock overseas—in Asia and Africa.
Look, I’m not saying they’re innocent, but it’s important to remember that back then, it wasn’t common knowledge that AIDS spread through blood transfusions. People were really clueless, even after scientists started making discoveries. Bayer and others should have known better, but they weren’t alone in their misunderstanding. Even President Reagan ignored it at first, then spread misinformation about how it spread.
No one really knew what was going on like we do today. Their main mistake was selling off their old, unsafe products instead of getting rid of them. You can’t blame them for infections before science figured out how AIDS spread.
RE: Fact #2 (Katzenberg’s $270 Million Disney Suit) – The CEO’s 52, the studio head’s 43… Man, what am I doing?
RE: Fact #45 (MLK Assassination Conspiracy Verdict) – Seems like they weren’t always so selfless. They hit the MLK, Jr. memorial foundation up for a hefty sum, which actually delayed the whole thing for years. One historian even said King himself would’ve been ticked off about it. Apparently, no other family of a memorial honoree in DC ever charged a fee.
RE: Fact #33 (Vanna White’s Robot Lawsuit Win) – Honestly, she’s the one who deserves the credit for that whole big letters on a game show thing.
The robot was dressed up like her, a clear parody.
Right, it’s a parody. So, wouldn’t the same fair use rules apply, even if it’s not a copyright problem?
RE: Fact #42 (Wells Fargo Whistleblower Rehired) – My aunt got a Wells Fargo account opened without her knowing – those guys are super shady.
I’m baffled. Why would anyone bank with Wells Fargo? Is it just to be in line for a payout when the next big lawsuit settles? Seriously, I have no clue.
I’m baffled why people still bank there.
I got outta there and went to a credit union right after they pulled that stunt. Best decision ever. Then the class action lawsuit money was just gravy. It took two trips to their local branch to close the account I never even opened, and they charged me for it, too!
So, during all that, I cleaned out my accounts and shut them down. Had all the paperwork and everything.
Then, months later, I returned some computer parts and they somehow credited my Wells Fargo account. Turns out they never actually closed it, and I got hit with about $150 in fees because they left eleven cents in there. Seriously lucky I got that refund.
They bought our first house loan after only five months, then jacked up the flood insurance way, way more than it should have been. Naturally, the only insurance companies they’d let us use were the ones they had deals with.
It was totally illegal, but our lawyers said fighting Wells Fargo would take forever, so we were better off refinancing after two years.
We did, with a local credit union. Still, Wells Fargo ripped us off for over twelve grand, and they do this kind of stuff all the time.
Screw Wells Fargo, and screw the politicians who either love this corruption or just give them a slap on the wrist.
RE: Fact #36 (Nuclear Claims Tribunal Underfunded) – That whole story is infuriating.
Imagine: it’s 1946, Sunday after church. A Navy bigwig shows up at Bikini Atoll and tells the islanders they’re like the chosen people, and that perfecting the bomb will save everyone from future wars.
It’s just awful.
The elders suffered horrific burns, were forced to move, and have seen terrible birth defects and cancers. The younger generation inherited a messed-up world, pretty much forgotten by Washington.
A professor who helped evacuate some of the people said it straight: “We basically destroyed their culture. We stole their future. Taking away someone’s future is destroying them.”
Is a human rights court only for countries that lose wars?
The islanders won a $2 billion lawsuit, but the US hasn’t actually paid nearly that much because there’s no way to make them. The UN even asked the US to pay more, but the US says they’ve done enough. It’s a total outrage.
The International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are all different.
The countries you call “war losers” are the ones judged by the International Criminal Court or similar courts. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights would be best to handle this, but they can’t step in unless the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights gets involved. That won’t happen until someone from Bikini Atoll or an NGO representing them brings it to the Commission’s attention.
The US hasn’t agreed to the Inter-American Commission’s authority, so they can’t get involved at all. The International Court of Justice only deals with cases between countries. It would be great if the Marshall Islands sued the US on behalf of the Bikini Atoll islanders—tough for a small country, though.
Even if the islanders win at the ICJ, it might not mean anything. The US could just veto any attempt to enforce the court’s decision at the UN. They’ve done this before, with Nicaragua.
It’s a tough situation for the islanders. If an international law expert sees any problems with my explanation, please feel free to correct me.
Their grandkids died from it—awful, right? More info: Soldiers cleaned up nuclear waste in the ’70s, no protection, got cancer.
RE: Fact #46 (KFC Ordered to Pay Millions) – I used to love KFC, but haven’t touched it in fifteen years – every single review I’ve seen is awful. What’s the deal with those places?
RE: Fact #43 (Santa Monica Crash Lawsuits) – I think older folks should have to retake their driving test every so often when they renew their license. My husband’s mom drove until she was in her 90s, and it was a nightmare – unsafe for her and everyone else. No one in the family wanted to be the bad guy and take away her keys or report her.
In Australia, drivers have to retake their test every year once they hit 85. My dad passed his at 85, but failed the next year, even with the same instructor. He could’ve kept trying, but decided to hang up his driving gloves then and there.
Families often feel helpless when they want to take away an elderly relative’s car keys. I knew this one woman whose grandma was a real menace behind the wheel – wouldn’t stop driving, even though the family begged her to. The grandma could barely see, had Alzheimer’s, and still had her license! Her son even went to extreme lengths, moving her seat way back and pulling fuses to make her think her car was broken. The grandma had said she wouldn’t buy another car, so it seemed like a good idea. Nope! She went out and bought a brand new Malibu. That car only lasted three weeks though, because she got completely smashed after forgetting if she’d had her lunchtime drink. She told the cops and paramedics all about it, and that’s when they finally took her license away.
It’s tough, because older voters are a big group, and any politician who tried to do that would really hurt their chances of getting re-elected.
Edit: I still think older drivers should have to get their skills checked, but that’s why it’s not happening—and why it’ll probably take forever.
It doesn’t need a vote; the DMV (or whatever they call it where you live) can just make it a rule.
RE: Fact #42 (Wells Fargo Whistleblower Rehired) – I’m always curious what happens next in these situations. Everyone knows you did it—are they really going to give you your usual stuff? Aren’t those meetings going to be super awkward? Can they actually fire you for goofing off without it looking shady?
That’ll make the job a really awful place to be. He should grab the $5 million and run, or just pop in one day to hand in his notice.
He’ll probably end up stuck in a tiny office, never doing anything important again. Dead end job.
I once had a boss who was pretty much the same. She came to work every day, did her job, and did it well—she really cared. Her higher-ups were super nice to her, almost like they were afraid to mess with her. But it didn’t matter; she still did her job, and did it well.
I bet people who win these kinds of cases are already good employees, so the company doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on in court.
Wouldn’t they be seen as heroes? It sounds like they exposed some really crummy company rules everyone hated but had to follow because upper management forced them to. Sure, some bosses might be mad, but a lot of them are probably fired or in jail by now, and the rest are probably pretty happy someone finally spoke up.
I was thinking the same thing. If a coworker did that, I’d totally have their back.
To be clear, I’m not a whistleblower type, but I’d definitely stand by and support a coworker who’d been fired for exposing shady stuff at the company.
RE: Fact #4 (Popcorn Lung Lawsuit Victory) – Popcorn lung for real.
This is super rare, almost unheard of outside of factory jobs.
That’s how it is. Popcorn lung got its name from workers in microwave popcorn factories.
I checked online to fight back against your crazy claim, and guess what? You were totally right.
I work at a hospital’s family hotel—it’s for families of patients. We don’t allow microwave popcorn because some patients have weak immune systems.
RE: Fact #27 (Small Group, Huge Malpractice Payouts) – Makes sense, right? Big fines mean big payers.
Think about it: 2% of Americans do 80% of the prison time. And 1% of Americans fly almost all the domestic flights.
It’s the same with anything – if most people don’t do something, the few who *do* it will look like a huge deal.
RE: Fact #4 (Popcorn Lung Lawsuit Victory) – Wait, seriously? You get paid seven million bucks just for eating popcorn?
Seven million dollars isn’t worth not being able to breathe, right? I mean, yeah, the money’s tempting, but breathing’s kinda important.
RE: Fact #23 (Sony’s Fake Movie Critic Scandal) – Paying someone to say nice things would’ve been way cheaper and simpler, right? Some people do the craziest stuff.
RE: Fact #19 (Hooters’ Gender Discrimination Case) – They went all Dale on it.
Pocket sand!
Psst!
Pocket sand!
They went full Dale Rusty Shackleford.
RE: Fact #12 (Armstrong’s Doping and Uber Windfall) – He raked in tens of millions just from endorsements. Twenty million bucks? Chump change for him, even without his Uber investments. In pro sports, cheating totally pays off.
RE: Fact #31 (Exxon Valdez Spill Damages Cut) – It’s always the same story. Big companies get slapped with huge fines—it makes the government look tough—but then, years down the line, some crooked judges overturn everything, and the company walks away without a scratch. By then, everyone’s forgotten all about it.
RE: Fact #45 (MLK Assassination Conspiracy Verdict) – Wow, I learned that today too! But honestly, it’s a lot easier to prove something in civil court than in a criminal one. They’ll even consider “he said, she said” type evidence.
RE: Fact #4 (Popcorn Lung Lawsuit Victory) – Ugh, here we go again. Basically, “tort” means you can sue if someone screws you over. When you see posts saying someone’s suing over nothing, that’s usually big companies trying to weaken your right to sue them— especially when they’ve really done you wrong. It’s a big, well-funded campaign to take away your rights.
RE: Fact #49 (Keira Knightley Wins Defamation) – Seriously, was it really £1 to $2 back then? Wow, the pound has taken a massive hit.
Yep, it was. My mom’s friend used to hit up NYC every November for Christmas shopping—way cheaper than here. Good times.
She must have shopped around a ton to save on those couple hundred quid for tickets. I figured New York would be pricier than anywhere in the UK.
RE: Fact #44 (Ford’s $55M Legal Defeat) – Fifty-five million dollars could get you 107 London buses.
RE: Fact #12 (Armstrong’s Doping and Uber Windfall) – I can’t fault him for doping; it seemed everyone else was doing it too. But trying to wreck other people’s careers for speaking up? That’s where he messed up.
Even so, his work raising awareness and money for cancer research was huge. His other stuff looks pretty small in comparison.
A magazine dug into LiveStrong’s finances and discovered a huge chunk went to lawyers. The rest? Mostly marketing, salaries for friends and family, and paying Lance Armstrong to show up at events. They did find a little money for cancer research, though. Armstrong sued the magazine, and we still don’t know where all that money went.
Almost every other cyclist was also on drugs, right? So it was like, if you took out all the cheaters, the guy who finished 24th would’ve won the whole thing.
Yeah, and that’s only the ones who got busted! Think how many more are out there.
It’s a really shady sport.
RE: Fact #41 (Louie Louie Composer’s Legal Fight) – So, if you sell something, it’s no longer yours.
Back in ’76, songwriters got a five-year window to grab their copyrights back, starting 35 years after the first sale. Sounds like their lawyer just sent a heads-up to push for a settlement.
Some industries are totally ruthless. If he hadn’t sold out, he’d never have gotten anywhere. It was sell or be stuck in a factory forever. Just because someone talks you into something doesn’t mean they aren’t screwing you. We wouldn’t know this song or him if he hadn’t done it.
I’m so baffled that people back millionaires and billionaires over the people who actually make the stuff we enjoy.
Man, the music biz is seriously shady. “Indie” and “punk” are styles, sure, but they really took off by avoiding the big record labels and their corporate crap. Even bands selling tons of records were seen as flops if they didn’t chart, got dropped, lost their album rights, and got paid peanuts because they couldn’t understand their contracts.
It’s crazy how people side with millionaires and billionaires instead of the folks actually making the stuff we enjoy.
That’s a pretty sneaky answer. It’s obvious the original commenter isn’t just defending the music industry. They’re just wondering why someone can threaten a lawsuit to get a renegotiation on a sale that’s already happened. That’s a fair question, and your first point answered it perfectly. No need for that backhanded insult at the end.
RE: Fact #37 (Klan Bankrupted in Lynching Case) – Wow, I had no idea lynchings were that recent.
RE: Fact #33 (Vanna White’s Robot Lawsuit Win) – White got pregnant in September 1992, and the news came out on Wheel of Fortune — “Vanna’s pregnant” was the puzzle. Sadly, she had a miscarriage soon after.
RE: Fact #7 (Student Forced to Urinate) – So, the teacher thought there was a super strict “no bathroom breaks” rule, and tried to fix it, according to the school’s lawyers.
She asked about it during a 25-minute class where she thought bathroom trips weren’t allowed.
I wonder what the actual rule said if that’s how it was understood.
Turns out, those 25-minute classes were supposed to be for studying and getting to know each other. The school said teachers should use their best judgment, even though they were told frequent bathroom breaks would mess things up.
But the art teacher, new to the school, took it really literally. She even bought a bucket for emergencies like a lockdown and, get this, used it herself a couple times!
It seems like the school just wanted to stop kids from messing around in the bathrooms. The bucket thing is, I guess, a solution. But her using it herself is definitely odd.
Seriously, the teacher was likely just following orders. My old school had these “freezes” – no kids allowed out, ever. We got yelled at by the higher-ups if we let anyone leave, even if it was an emergency.
So the school got sued, not the teacher.
RE: Fact #21 (Tobacco Company Gave Kids Cigarettes) – I bet this program made way more than $35 million, think of all the smokers it hooked.
Investing in cigarettes, heart, lung, and cancer medicine? Sounds like a guaranteed win for those companies! They should team up and give away free cigarettes to kids!
Yeah, Newport cigarettes are still super popular—a lot of people still buy them. It’s been a family thing for ages, and that hasn’t changed. They made $26 billion in 2015, so $35 million is practically nothing compared to their yearly marketing budget, right? And they kept selling even more in 2016. It’s a crazy, long-lasting addiction, and it’s really a shame.
It’s awesome hitting multi-billion-dollar companies where it hurts—a tiny fraction of their daily earnings. That’ll teach ’em to be less sneaky.
RE: Fact #21 (Tobacco Company Gave Kids Cigarettes) – Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I remember cigarette machines always being right beside the soda machines. Crazy, huh?
RE: Fact #15 (Ribena’s Vitamin C Fraud) – As a high school science teacher, I’d have my students bust those misleading health ads.
“Why bother with this stuff?”
So you won’t get tricked so easily!
Grab a piece of that sweet settlement money, too.
A hundred percent is, like, the whole thing.
This is a fantastic idea! It’d give students real-world experience in science, teaching them to analyze claims logically, create hypotheses, and build arguments—maybe even legal ones! The money made could really help fund public schools.
Of course, something this good for critical thinking probably won’t make it into any national curriculum.
Back in high school, around 15, I did a presentation just like this. It was awesome. Between that, and the science and media classes, my school really taught me to be skeptical about stuff like that.
Orange-flavored, orange extract, and just plain orange—I still remember which is which when I’m shopping for groceries.
I kinda wish the only thing I remembered from US science class was that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.
RE: Fact #32 (Conan’s $45M NBC Settlement) – Conan shelled out $12 million to relocate his staff from New York to LA when he left Late Night. That’s just one example of how awesome he is to his people. Loads of his crew have been with him since the 90s – seriously, who does that these days? He’s my all-time favorite late-night host, and I’m happy he’s doing stuff he loves.
A regular at the bar where I worked knew Craig Ferguson’s nephew, who worked on the show. Whenever she was in, we’d watch it and she’d share her nephew’s stories – he always said Ferguson was a really great guy. That was fifteen years ago, and he still seems like a genuinely nice person to me.
Craig was the best host ever, hands down! He really invented the laid-back podcast interview style – just two people chatting, not some host throwing easy questions so the guest can promote their stuff.
Craig Ferguson earned major points with me for being so decent about Britney Spears’ breakdown. He specifically said he wasn’t going to make fun of her that night.
RE: Fact #2 (Katzenberg’s $270 Million Disney Suit) – No way! Disney canned the guys who started Dreamworks AND Pixar? Wow.
My friend, a former Disney animator, says Katzenberg was a real jerk—nobody there liked him. He visited our studio a few months back, and everyone gave him that fake-nice, “you’re terrible but rich” look.
Pocket change
RE: Fact #36 (Nuclear Claims Tribunal Underfunded) – They wait till most folks are gone. Purely business, nothing personal. /s
It looks like they’re doing the same thing to the 9/11 first responders now.
USA: Sorry, can’t help you.
Islands: Fine, we’ll remember that next war.
USA: That’s insulting to all Americans!
RE: Fact #42 (Wells Fargo Whistleblower Rehired) – I’d keep working for another week, grinning the whole time.
Super rare. A win-win.
That job’s yours for life, basically. They’d be terrified of the fallout from letting you go, even if they had a good reason.
They scrubbed that whole thing and made it anonymous.
And you’ve got a cool five million in the bank to back you up.
I’d show up every day, but wouldn’t actually do anything. Fire me again, I dare you.