The Culture of Litigation

I finally gave in this morning and stopped by the new Starbucks on the way to the office this morning. The long line moved quickly and I overheard the cashier saying more than once, "I'm sorry, we are out of grande and verdi, would you like two talls?" By the time I got near the front of the line, I heard her saying to a customer, "Well, actually, we are not out of grande and verdi cups, but we are out of lids, and we cannot serve them without lids."

A few minutes later a customer said, "I'll take a verdi; I don't need a lid." To which she responded, "I'm sorry, we cannot serve cups without lids." Picture the customer getting ticked:
"What do you mean you cannot serve a cup without a lid? That's ridiculous." At this point another employee, perhaps the manager, stepped up and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but it's company policy not to serve a cup without a lid because of litigation. If you spilled it and burned yourself, you could sue us and we would be liable."

Thank that individual several years ago who successfully sued MacDonald's when she burned herself upon dropping her cup of coffee in her lap. Her gain was our loss.