Review of True & Absurd Lawsuits That Really Happened

Entertaining Legal Oddities With Some Surprisingly Serious Lessons

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8932426729

★★★★☆ Review

True & Absurd Lawsuits That Really Happened is an entertaining collection of legal disputes that often sound too ridiculous to be real. Sherlock Grant covers familiar cases—including the McDonald’s hot-coffee lawsuit, the missing pants valued at $67 million, the Subway “Footlong,” the monkey selfie, and the Pepsi fighter jet—along with several lesser-known controversies.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its organization. Each chapter generally explains the incident, the lawsuit or dispute, the outcome, and what happened afterward. The author then adds a short reflection about the larger issue raised by the case. The chapters are brief, clearly written, and easy to read individually, making this a good book to pick up whenever you have a few minutes.

Although the book is humorous, it also demonstrates that an absurd-sounding headline does not always tell the whole story. The chapter on Stella Liebeck and McDonald’s coffee is especially effective. Many people remember it as a frivolous lawsuit, but the actual facts—including the severity of her burns and the company’s knowledge of previous injuries—present a much more complicated case. Other chapters examine serious questions involving consumer expectations, workplace pressure, corporate advertising, copyright, technology, and personal responsibility.

Grant’s tone is conversational and frequently witty without becoming burdened by dense legal terminology. Sources are provided after the chapters, which gives interested readers a starting point for learning more about the cases.

There are a few weaknesses. Despite the title, not every selection is actually a lawsuit. The Zoom cat-filter incident, the disputed Argentine football election, and the camel beauty contest are legal or procedural oddities rather than court cases. In addition, the chapter titled “The Woman Who Followed Google Maps Off a Cliff” concerns a pedestrian who was struck by a vehicle after following directions onto a dangerous road—not someone who went off a cliff. That misleading title should have been corrected. A few of the author’s reflections also follow a similar pattern and can feel somewhat repetitive.

Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable introduction to the strange intersection of law, human behavior, advertising, technology, and common sense. Readers interested in unusual true stories, courtroom controversies, consumer law, or accessible legal history should find plenty here to entertain them—and perhaps cause them to reconsider a few famous cases they thought they already understood.

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