Woman sues for billions over Jackson 'Boob'!

vibe666

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-12986718,00.html

An American woman has filed a lawsuit demanding billions of dollars in compensation for "serious injury" suffered when Janet Jackson exposed her breast on television.

Bank worker Terri Carlin is demanding compensation for herself and millions of other viewers who were watching last Sunday's Super Bowl.

Jackson was on stage with Justin Timberlake, who tugged at her top, tearing it and revealing her right breast.

In her lawsuit, Ms Carlin, from Tennessee, said broadcasters breached an "implied contract" that viewers would not be exposed to explicit images during the prime time event.

She is suing Jackson, Timberlake, broadcasters MTV and CBS and their parent company, Viacom.

"As a direct and proximate result of the broadcast of the acts, (Ms Carlin) and millions of others saw the acts and were caused to suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury," the lawsuit states.

The injuries suffered by Ms Carlin are not specified.

will it ever end?

Stark

ffs, it's a breast, what the hell does she think she sees when she looks down in the shower?

mr_angry

"Serious injury". Ha! Did her jaw drop too quickly?

phreak

thats one of the major things wrong with the world today... people sue over the smallest thing in the hope of making money without doing any work.

vibe666

should i sue spain for letting people sunbathe topless? it caused me serious injury when I was on holiday last year.

does groin strain count?:D

anthonymcg

God





Bless




America

Dr. Dre

Check out the 'award' made to this woman.

OK it was a real crime, but still.....:eek:

substr

Dre whats that got to do with the jackson case

I wish I had thought of it before her.. a few billion is nothin to be sniffed at!

reigninblood

Check out the 'award' made to this woman.

Holy shít! What in the name of God could be worth 1.6 billion?

Sueing should be outlawed. The ammount of crap that has happened to me and I have done nothing about. I could be a millionaire!

The woman sueing over the Janet thing just needs a good seeing to is all. I mean come on for christ sake. How can that be classed as explicit. Serious Injury!? If someone manages to win an injury lawsuit based on images they see on tv then the world is fúcked full stop.

Skud

only in america...

I'd take the billion no bother no complaints

Dr. Dre

Originally posted by substr
Dre whats that got to do with the jackson case

:rolleyes:


Nothing, was just demonstrating that huge payouts can and do happen.

MarkR

Wasn't she wearing a sparkly thing on her nipple? So she kinda had clothes on?:D

seamus

Originally posted by reigninblood
Holy shít! What in the name of God could be worth 1.6 billion?

Sueing should be outlawed. The ammount of crap that has happened to me and I have done nothing about. I could be a millionaire!

It's not the sueing that's messed up, it's the way they carry out the case.

If a person is found to be in the right, and due damages, then the court will decide if the defendent should have to pay punitive damages, that is pay what's essentially a fine for doing what they did, so they won't do it again.
When you're dealing with big business of the likes of insurance companies, tobacco companies, music/tv companies, fines of a couple of million are nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
If you read that whole article, you'll that the woman's actual damages were $10 million, a relatively modest, and probably just amount. However, this $10 mil is nothing to insurance companies. They'd laugh at it. So the judge imposed a further fine of $800 million, punitive damages, on each of them, which *is* a significant amount of money.

The problem is that punitive damages go to the aggrieved party, when logically, and using common sense, they should go to the state.

I'm reminded of an award last year, when a woman sued a tobacco company for the usual "I'm an idiot, and thought inhaling smoke was good for me at the time", and was awarded some ridiculous amount, close to $27 billion. Her actual damages weighed in at just $500,000, the rest were punitive. Where's the logic in that?

It should also be noted that sensational punitive damages, such as the above, tend to come down on appeal. It's also very unlikely that the individual asked to pay out $800 million has even close to that kind of cash, so she may receive something like half of his assets.

reigninblood

I still believe you should be thrown in the slammer if you bring a stupid lawsuit on somebody. Like parents who's kids are over at another kids house and they fall and cut their knee who proceed to fleece the people whos house it happened at.
IMO those people should be publicly beaten! The system gets abused!

ixoy

Originally posted by Skud
only in america...

If ONLY it were in America. We're the country who award 10k to some fcuking twat who got stuck in a lift for fifteen minutes! Or some dozy drunk cow who slipped on a floor in a hotel.

Let's put myself and some of the Boards members as judges here.

Claimant: I slipped on the -
Me: Were you drinking?
Claimant: Well yes but that's not the -
Me: Answer my question. I'm a judge. Don't give back talk.
Claimant: Yes I was your Honor but I -
Me: You did it again! I'm holding you in contempt of court! One thousand euro fine! I am the law!
Claimant: Sorry your Honor.
Me: You should be. I'm also throwing out your case. It's clear that you're an opportunisitic b1tch who wants to screw the system for her own selfish needs and seeks to pump up everyone else's insurance premiums.
Claimant: You can't call me a b1tch! How dare you! I'll sue for defamation of character!
Me: Second time in contempt of court. Fifty thousand euro fine. You also said "how dare you" implying you know what I can and cannot do. You do not therefore you're defaming MY character. One hundred thousand euro fine.
Claimant: I can't pay that!
Me: Electric chair then! NEXT!

C'mon, vote me in guys!

moridin

Stalin was a pussy.

rymus

I'm sueing everyone who's written in this thread, boards.ie, Esat, Eircom, my employer, the Internet™, the makers of my breakfast cereal and my right shoe for damages I have recieved as a direct result of reading this thread. I want a cajillion squillion euro from each of them to pay my optician bills, which currently total at €0.02.

God bless the compo culture

Tyrrial

i'd vote for ixoy is a case is brought against rymus!

Stark

I'm reminded of an award last year, when a woman sued a tobacco company for the usual "I'm an idiot, and thought inhaling smoke was good for me at the time"

Well considering tobacco companies actually advertised their products as so. And you can see how people might actually believe it. "Made from tobacco, a substance grown naturally". For all we know, in 20 years time we could find out herbal teas are bad for us.

vibe666

Originally posted by ixoy
Me: Electric chair then! NEXT!

You've got my vote!

as for the did/didn't know it was bad for you, it's been blatantly obvious to anyone who's ever stood near someone who's been smoking for 40 years how bad it is for you sinc ethe 70's. anyone who claims different is just plain stupid.

if i told you that cutting off your legs wouldn't do you any harm and you did it despite the fact you'd have to be a complete and utter fool to do so, what judge would rule in favour of the guy with no legs on the grounds of the 'but he told me it would do me good' claim?

actually, probably an american judge.

oh, i bought a boiling hot cup of coffee and when i drank it it burned me. i want to sue. or i bought a razor sharp carving knife and was using it to count my fingers and cut one off. they should all be shot.

as for serious injury! the only person who could have possibly been seriously injured was justin timberlake, and even he wasn't close enough to get his eye poked out with it. stupid stupid stupid.

Agent Smith

Originally posted by k.oriordan
Well considering tobacco companies actually advertised their products as so. And you can see how people might actually believe it. "Made from tobacco, a substance grown naturally". For all we know, in 20 years time we could find out herbal teas are bad for us.

by the amount my mother drinks i wouldnt be surprised!

Raphael

Originally posted by vibe666
Woman sues for billions over Jackson 'Boob'!

Hehe, nice touch on the inverted comma's

suppafly

what i'malways left wondering is how do they come up with such high figures for compensation???

Kernel32

A couple of points to make on this. These class action lawsuits are becoming popular in the states. What happens is a group of lawyers get together, they find a person or persons who feel they have been wronged by some large organization. They then sue that organization for compensation for the victims, plus costs of course. The so called victims often number in the thousands if not millions What generally happens is the 'victims' walk away with a couple of dollars each and the lawyers get a bucket of money. Its all a money scam by lawyers.

I was watching the half-time show live myself and saw the incident. While I do believe its all blown out of proportion, if you blinked you would have missed it, I do think some people have a reason to be upset. The super-bowl is a family event, it is televised before 9pm. Parents have a right to choose what their children should see and they expect the TV channel broadcasting the event to provide a family friendly show given the time of day and type of channel. What Janet Jackson did was violate that right. The incident itself is mild compared to what you would see on american talk shows but thats not the point. If your child was watching a cartoon you wouldn't expect to see a boob flash up on the TV, no more so than what happened at the superbowl, but a lawsuit is ridiculous.

Stark

heh, it's only a boob. You have kids less than 2 sucking on them ffs! "Breast feeding is good for babies, but may leave them emotionally scarred".

Kold

If I was defending Janet I would issue this statement "Shut the Fúck up and die you flaming retard"

Sand

Ill keep you in mind if I ever need a lawyer.

vibe666

Originally posted by Raphael
Hehe, nice touch on the inverted comma's

yeah, i'm after a job at the sun.

Silent Bob

She called it off:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/02/10/jackson.fallout.ap/index.html

harney

Woman sues for billions over Jackson 'Boob'!

Out of curiosity,

What is stopping someone sueing this woman for double the money on the grounds that she is infringing on ones right to be shocked

LoneGunM@n

Originally posted by Kold
If I was defending Janet I would issue this statement "Shut the Fúck up and die you flaming retard"

That has to be 1 of the funniest things I've ever read

AFAIK the Irish Legal System has introduced a software program [can't remember the name], where all the details of the planitiff are entered in & the program punches out a reasonable assessment of what damages should be, which the defence team will not pay over without going to court!!

IMO the reason why the insurance payouts are so high is down to the Lawyers & not the plaintiff ... but that being said I was down in the 4 courts a couple of months ago & saw a guy going in on crutches & about an hour later he strolls out with a big smile on his face, carrying his crutches :rolleyes: :mad: