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Comment by piokoch | Hacker News Reader

This is interesting, from the article it seems that authorities broken the law multiple times

"[...] people regularly spend months behind bars without charges filed against them, much longer than state law allows."

In such a litigious society like the one in the USA, what stops convicts from hiring the lawyer and suing authorities, there are many lawyers who would gladly work for success fee, if indeed the law was broken and they can expect an easy win for a huge amount that people get in US courts because, say, they spilled hot coffee on their laps and it turned out the coffee is hot?

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you only get those kind of pay outs if the coffee burns you badly enough to need surgery or etc. suing usually needs you to prove a serious damage to get the jury to want to give you money

a month in jail has some concrete damage but it's still going to be harder than pointing at a medical bill, right?

I'm genuinely shocked at how "tort reform" (read: corporations trying to reduce liability as much as possible) propaganda has permeated the general consciousness.

- Liebeck initially only requested McDonald's cover the medical fees from going into shock and having 3rd degree burns over her lower body (including genitalia), which McDonald's refused and only offered $800.

- McDonald's had received hundreds of reports of the coffee scalding people.

- Liebeck didn't get the multi-million dollar payout because the judge reduced it 640k, trebled the compensatory damages, which is incredibly normal for punitives.

Do you expect coffee from fast food restaurants to be hot enough to send you into shock? That whole incident is a great example of a story confirming peoples' assumptions (frivolous lawsuits are everywhere) despite not being an example of that assumption

> there are many lawyers who would gladly work for success fee

For personal injuries? Absolutely. For federal civil rights violation cases? Few and far between.

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