My education is put to work every day when I read vital entertainment news. From E online:

"A California woman is suing the producers of mega-bomb Gigli, claiming she fell after being "temporarily blinded" by sun reflectors on the set. The filmmakers allegedly set up the reflectors so that paparazzi wouldn't be able to get shots of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez kissing between scenes."

Thanks to civil procedure I know that most courts use "notice pleading" which makes it very easy to get a lawsuit started. You don't really have to make any showing that your complaint is true or meritorious, you just have to scribble down a few lines of a complaint and boom, you've got a lawsuit.

Thanks to torts I know that this kind of suit, which makes people roll their eyes in wonder at the court system, is likely to fail. The woman has to show the fillmmakers had a duty to protect her from injury based on a specific risk created by the reflectors. Even then she needs to show that the reflectors were the cause of her injury, and not just her craning her neck to get a look at Ben Affleck.

18 Dec 04