>>Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments<<
Which means they lanced a blister. I do that to my kids when their shoes rub. You pop the blister and remove the liquid. It helps healing. Most probably they removed the skin on the top as well. It’s horrible but
No matter what, whether the car was moving (which I believe they lied about), the woman was an idiot for putting a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee between her legs. AND (from the Wiki) she pushed the court cases to the limit...
“A twelve-person jury reached its verdict on August 18, 1994.[15] Applying the principles of comparative negligence, the jury found that McDonald’s was 80% responsible for the incident and Liebeck was 20% at fault. Though there was a warning on the coffee cup, the jury decided that the warning was neither large enough nor sufficient. They awarded Liebeck US$200,000 in compensatory damages, which was then reduced by 20% to $160,000. In addition, they awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. The jurors apparently arrived at this figure from Morgan’s suggestion to penalize McDonald’s for one or two days’ worth of coffee revenues, which were about $1.35 million per day.[5] The judge reduced punitive damages to $480,000, three times the compensatory amount, for a total of $640,000. The decision was appealed by both McDonald’s and Liebeck in December 1994, but the parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount less than $600,000.”
McDonald’s has deep pockets. She hit the jackpot.
She was willing to settle for 20 grand. She hit "the jackpot" because McDonalds believed it had a strong justification for the temperature it served its coffee at.
700 burn incidents, some of them 3rd degree, being described to the jury as "statistically insignificant," turned out to be damaging to their case.
I would expect some 2nd degree burns in proximity to a third degree burn by scalding. Blistering, and no destruction of epidermis. So, yes, I agree, there was probably lancing of blisters. There was also this ...
What the jury didn't realize initially was the severity of her burns. Told during the trial of Mrs. Liebeck's seven days in the hospital and her skin grafts ...