What makes legal news can run from logical to lunacy.
I can understand why members of the original funk band War are suing Pepsi for more than $10 million, saying Pepsi did not negotiate with them to use their song “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” in a new commercial. This case might be an infringement of someone’s intellectual property.
However, when I saw the headline “Woman sues over rough landing“, I felt like a fool. Did I miss out on a few million dollars in damages from the flights I’ve taken over the years? While it’s possible she did suffer emotional distress, she should have been advised to have come up with a line better than this one for the media:
“That day changed my whole life — it changed my whole world,”
Thomas said, adding: “This is one problem I can’t solve.”
Well, I assume a few million dollars will help her find a solution.
It would have been better for her to have either mentioned a medical or psychological ailment that resulted. The story later reports that the suit focuses on the potential negligence of the airline:
Thomas’ lawsuit alleges that the flight crew should have diverted sooner to another airport before the battery ran out and key systems were crippled. It accused
American Airlines and the plane’s two pilots of negligence…
Lawyers and their clients need to make sure that when they want to influence the “court of public opinion,” their statements to the media resonate with their legal documents, stead of making them sound like over sensitive drama majors just out to make money.