Fun fact: The US isn’t even in the top 3 most litigious countries. Those are Germany, Sweden, and Israel, (though the US does spend more money per lawsuit, because lawyers are more expensive and payouts tend to be larger.) That stereotype about the US was started by McDonalds in the wake of the (in)famous Hot Coffee lawsuit, to shame people out of future lawsuits.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the broad strokes of the lawsuit. Woman spills coffee on herself, gets scalded, and sues for millions. That’s the wildly biased story McD spread, to make her sound like an overly litigious leech. Nobody denies that the spill happened. It’s the situation surrounding the spill that won her the money, and McD launched a massive astroturfing campaign in the wake of the lawsuit to deter future litigants. It’s widely considered to be one of the most successful astroturfing campaigns in history, because the stereotype about America still exists to this day.

McD was serving their coffee at dangerous temps. They knew it was dangerous, had injured several people in the past, and had been warned to reduce the temperature to more reasonable levels. McD refused, because they didn’t want people taking advantage of their free in-store refills. If customers had to wait for their coffee to cool before they could drink it, they’d drink less coffee and get fewer refills.

When the spill happened, the coffee was hot enough to melt her labia and fuse it to her thigh. Again, this wasn’t the first injury that McD had caused, but it one of the most severe. She originally only asked them to cover her hospital bills, since she had to get reconstructive surgery, skin grafts, rehab, etc… It was something like $20k in total. McD countered with an offer of a $100 gift card and a non-disclosure agreement. She obviously refused, and it went to court.

Again, she only sued for the ~$20k in medical bills. It went to a jury trial, and the jury was so horrified by McD’s actions that they decided to award her the extra millions for her trouble.

That was when McD launched the astroturfing campaign. They were worried that if news spread about their actions and the fact that she won, other people would come forward with their own lawsuits. So instead, they worked to paint themselves as the victim and her as the evil money-grubbing leech. They hired ad agencies to troll forums, write news articles, etc… And again, it’s widely considered to be one of the most successful campaigns in history, because it worked and the effects are still felt to this day. The US is still seen as overly litigious, and corporations are still allowed to get away with literal crimes, because people are simply afraid to sue.