NEWS
On Aug. 18, 1994, a 12-person jury originally awarded Stella Liebeck $160,000 in compensatory and $2.7 million in punitive damages.
me,’” said Barbara Jorden, legislative director for the Idaho Trial Lawyers 9 Association. But Idaho has seen a steady drop in the amount of non-economic damages that someone can claim. “Most people know what economic damages are, but non-economic are equally important,” said Erika Birch, attorney with the Boise office of Strindberg and Scholnick. “These are the things that can’t be attached to a receipt. How much of your time has been lost? Or your spouse?” In 1987, non-economic damages in Idaho were limited to $400,000, with a built-in economic indicator. And thanks to some intense lobbying from the Idaho Liability Reform Coalition, damages took another drop in 2003. “Idaho now has one of the worst limitations of damages in the nation,” said Jorden. “We fought like crazy in 2003, but we lost in the State Senate by one vote. They dropped compensatory non-economic damages to $250,000. It was a very rough time. We worked really hard and lost that one.” Birch, who knew she wanted to be an attorney since the fifth grade, spends her days litigating employment actions—wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, non-compete clauses. Her clients range from farmworkers to some of the Gem State’s top executives. “I once had a sexual harassment case that went to trial in federal court,” said Birch. “A woman had claimed that she had been harassed and physically assaulted by her supervisor and forced out of her job because she had complained about it. A jury heard all of her testimony. A jury awarded her $1.75 million in damages. A jury heard all of the testimony and they got to decide what her emotional distress was worth.” Or so they thought. “The jury’s decision went all the way down
10 | FEBRUARY 15–21, 2012 | BOISEweekly
to ...” said Birch, drawing a downward line in the air with her finger, with an accompanying sound of “wooooosh.” “All the way down to $300,000 by the judge. You see, the jury is never told about caps. They’re never told, ‘Oh, by the way, no matter what you decide, your award will be whatever the cap is.’ It wasn’t even discretionary.” Birch said there is little to no recourse in such actions. “A lot of people have tried to show that this is unconstitutional, but so far, they’ve been unsuccessful,” said Birch. “That woman won and lost. That case was in 2001 at the beginning of my career and that cap is still in place today.” Birch and Jorden can’t wait for more people to see Saladoff’s movie. That’s why the ITLA is sponsoring a free screening of Hot Coffee at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, at the Egyptian Theatre. “It’s amazing how many people talk about the McDonald’s hot-coffee case and they don’t even know yet about the movie,” said Jorden. “I was just over at Dawson Taylor and a couple of people behind the counter saw my ITLA name tag. When I told them I worked with lawyers, they said, ‘Be careful, this is hot,’ and even said they were just talking about the McDonald’s case. When I told them what the real truth was and about the movie, they were pretty excited.” That’s the main reason Birch said she contacted Saladoff online asking her to bring her film to Boise. “Then I walked over to the Egyptian Theatre and the woman working in the box office said, ‘Oh my gosh, we were just talking about the McDonald’s case.’” Birch and Jorden are convinced that the more people who see the film, the more conversation will be sparked. “If we get one person who sees the different side of the McDonald’s case we’ll be thrilled,” said Birch. WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M