the infamous hot coffee situation resulted in the woman having to get skin grafts, and mcdonalds actually got that over turned later after a large campaign against people supposedly being litigious for personal gain and tha family had to pay the money back. it also served to have a law passed which put a low limit on the amount that could be awarded for punitive damages, All in all the hot coffee case served to make hurt consumers be questions and large corporations are now in a much more legally safe area when it comes to having to pay out for wrongdoings against individuals.