Once the whole story was revealed, many believed that the Stella Liebeck hot coffee lawsuit was not frivolous. She suffered severe burns, requiring skin graft surgery. However, other lawsuits do seem to border on the ridiculous and could qualify as frivolous, or lacking merit.

Proponents of tort reform often cite examples of frivolous lawsuits as a reason to curtail the tort law system. Some of the more unusual examples include:

• A man sued a strip club in Florida, claiming that an exotic dancer’s large breasts gave him whiplash during a lap dance.

• A prisoner in Colorado sued prison officials after he injured himself during an escape attempt. His rationale was that prison officials were negligent in making it too easy for inmates to attempt to escape.

• A judge in New York is suing for more than $1 million dollars he slipped and fell on a courthouse floor.

• An administrative law judge in the District of Columbia sued a dry cleaners for more than $50 million for allegedly losing his clothes.