U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform Announces Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A lawsuit against Oprah and President George W. Bush, alleging they implanted a camera into a woman with the intention of reincarnating her, tops the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform’s (ILR) 2010 Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Year Poll, released today.

ILR announced the top five vote-getters as chosen by visitors to the FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org website. The stories were selected from the lawsuit stories featured in the website’s monthly polls for 2010. The Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign is ILR’s public awareness effort created to highlight the impact of abusive lawsuits on small businesses, communities, and individuals.

“While many of these lawsuits are humorous and others quite troubling, the damage inflicted by abusive litigation is very real,” said ILR President Lisa Rickard. “More litigation is something we can ill afford in this troubled economy that desperately needs more jobs, not more lawsuits.”
The top five Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2010 are:

1. Woman sues Oprah and President Bush, declaring they "implanted a camera with wire sensors into her with the intent of reincarnation."
2. Girl sues estate of pregnant woman she killed during suicide attempt
3. Convicted killer sues to receive electrolysis as part of state-funded sex change
4. Child-molesting teacher countersues boy's parents over negligent supervision
5. Restaurant sued for failing to offer artichoke-eating instructions

Links to the full news stories from which these were drawn and the complete results of the poll can be found at http://facesoflawsuitabuse.org/polls-archive.

ILR seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the national, state, and local levels.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.