AMERICA VOTES FOR MOST FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS VIA INTERNET IN M-LAW'S FIRST ANNUAL WHIPLASH! AWARDS

Southfield, MI: 9/05/00: A lawsuit against a blind man who accidentally stepped on a shopper's foot has edged out a case filed by college student who fell out of his dorm window while "mooning" friends to win the first annual Whiplash! Awards for America's most frivolous lawsuits. The lawsuits were included in an internet poll of outrageous lawsuits conducted by a citizen watchdog group working to restore common sense to our nation's courts.

Online voters chose a Florida woman for the dubious distinction of filing America's most frivolous lawsuit because she sued a school for guide-dogs after a blind man who was using one of the school's dogs stepped on her foot. According to a guide-dog instructor who was walking with the blind man through a mall, the woman said, "I wanted to see if the dog would walk around me."

The winners of the awards were determined by an online poll at www.mlaw.org which featured five of the most extreme cases featured in a new book entitled, "Whiplash! America's Most Frivolous Lawsuits," by best-selling author James Percelay. The Whiplash! contest was promoted on national news programs during July and August by Percelay, a former producer for HBO and Saturday Night Live.

The second place Whiplash! Award went to a man who sued McDonald's because it failed to warn customers about the dangers of eating and driving. According to the man's complaint, a customer who had purchased a milkshake at the restaurant's drive-up window collided with his car after spilling the cold drink in his lap. Third place was awarded to an Idaho college student who fell out of his third-floor window while "mooning" his friends and then decided to sue the college for not providing warnings about the perils of upper-story windows.

The watchdog group which sponsored the contest, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW), intends to use the Whiplash! Awards every year to expose abuse of our civil justice system much in the same way the Golden Fleece Awards expose wasteful government spending. "Lawsuit abuse is a serious issue, but if we can use humor to get America thinking about how these lawsuits are piling costs on families, that's fine with us," said M-LAW President Robert B. Dorigo Jones. According to M-LAW, every American citizen pays a "lawsuit tax" of $1,200 per year, even if not sued. The tax includes the direct cost of the civil justice system along with the cost of lost jobs and higher consumer prices.