This thread is about $67 million PANTS!

[Maitre]

Before I post the link, I just want to say that I didn't know whether to yell angrily or laugh like an idiot when I first read this story. It's one of those things that's so ridiculously absurd that you think it just has to be fake.

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3119381
Please read the rest of the report. It just gets better and better. This guy is a judge, and he's suing his local mom 'n pop dry cleaners for $67 MILLION because they lost his pants. Those must be really special pants. The dry cleaners have offered to settle for $12,000, but the suing judge said no. This case has been ongoing for years, and the defendants have been racking up legal bills.

I really like the fact that he's asking for $15,000 for rental car fees to take his dry cleaning to another location. There is no way in hell that a judge owns his own car, no way whatsoever.

The story has been tossed around the DC media for a while, but the emphasis here has been about where the $ figure comes from. Don't get me wrong, I think the claim is ridiculous, but he got the 60+ million dollar number by suing for false advertising no just the pants. The suit cites signs posted in the location's windows that state "next-day service" and "satisfaction guaranteed." The statue he's suing under specifies a maximum penalty per infraction for false advertising ($12K I think), and Pearson is claiming each day the signs were up as one infraction, times the number of days, times two signs... He also has upped the total dollar figure over time to account for his own time at a billing rate of ~$400/hour (top lawyer pay in the DC area).

There's a lot of junk in this suit that makes it ridiculous, but lets not over simplify this to the headline of "$67M for the pants." I think he should have taken the first settlement that was offered and let these people run their business.