Top ten most ridiculous lawsuits of 2011

Faces of Lawsuit Abuse have just published their annual list of ridiculous lawsuits. There's some right crackers on there. The invite you to vote on their top ten to choose the most ridiculous lawsuit of 2011. Here's the countdown:

1. 1.74% of the votes so far. Man suing for age discrimination says judge in his case is too old. A sixty year old violinist wanted to compete for the Young Concert Artists Prize, but was ineligible due to it being restricted to musicians aged between 16 and 26. He then tried to sue for age discrimination and had his case assigned to an 88 year old judge. He then complained that the judge had "mental and physical limitations" because he was "too old." Uh huh. He cancelled his lawsuit and then refiled it. And he got the same judge. Oh dear. Full story here.
2. 1.98% of the votes so far. A woman is suing the producers of the film Drive because the trailer suggested there'd be lots of driving and then there wasn't.  “Drive bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film, for reasons including but not limited to Drive having very little driving in the motion picture.” Full story here
3. 2.38% of the votes so far.  A mother is suing Chuck E. Cheese because she says that their games encourage gambling in children. One buys tokens to play them game and successful play returns tickets that can be exchanged for prizes. State law allows for such things as long as they're games of skill. She's contending that they're not and thus they're effectively lotteries and thus gambling. Hmm. Full story here.
4. 3.77% of the votes so far. A mother is suing a pre-school for ruining her 4 year old's chances of getting into an Ivy League college. Oh, okay. Apparently the kid is playing with younger children and sitting through "boring" lessons about colours and shapes. Full story here.
5. 4.21% of the votes so far. A cruise passenger is has filed a lawsuit saying that the cruise ship went too fast and swayed from side to side. Her complaint states that her body "swayed terrible" and that she "had bleeding, which I had not has [sic] in three years." The boats are capable of 22 to 24 knots (around 25 to 28 mph). Full story here
6. 5.58% of the votes so far. An obese man is suing White Castle because its booths are too small for his enormous arse. He claims he's complained to them before and that they offered to accommodate his wishes, but that they haven't done so. White Castle say they've given him a list of other branches that cater to fat bastards and that they have a table and chairs option that will allow him to sit comfortably at his local branch. There's a good video where he says he's not the kind of guy who goes around suing companies indiscriminately. Full story here
7. 7.57% of the votes so far. A man took a gun into a bar, got in a fight with another guy who also had a gun, got shot, got arrested for illegal gun possession and is now suing the bar for allowing him to walk in there with a gun in the first place. Full story here
8. 8.75% of the votes so far. A woman used a coupon to get a discount at Century 21, but returned one of the items she bought and was issued with a refund that was 80 cents on the basis that it was a pro rata reduction based on the discount she'd got. Now it certainly does seem that the shop was wrong to do so as the coupon was for five dollars off a fifty dollar or more purchase and that even without the item she returned, her total was over fifty dollars. So she's now launched a class action lawsuit suing for five million dollars. What? Full story here
9. 9.77% of the votes so far. The adult children of a woman are suing her for shitty birthday and Christmas gifts. They're claiming that birthday cards instead of gifts constitute abuse. No, really. Full story here
10. 54.25% of the votes so far. A fugitive murder suspect broke into a couple's home ,held them at knife-point (whilst also having a gun) and asking them to help him evade the police. He apparently offered the couple a vague amount of money for concealing him and is now suing them because, when he fell asleep after drinking Dr Pepper and watching "Patch Adams", they ran off and got the cops. Ha ha ha! Full story here

Luckily all these cases are in America, but how long will it be before we see such shit in the UK thanks to the dodgy law firms that love to advertise on afternoon television?

Head on over to the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse website if you'd like to vote for any of these stupid cases (although that burglar is definitely going to win) http://www.facesoflawsuitabuse.org/polls-archive/