the size of the award has to punish the defendant

In that case, the money should go to a charity, and neither the plaintiff nor the plaintiff's lawyer should see a penny of it.

... If the lawyers didn't see the money, we wouldn't have these kind of lawsuits. Hey, not a bad idea!!!

Not a penny of it would result in a lack of needed lawyers, but some sort of ceiling would be advantageous.

If there were no penalties assessed in the settlement, why do anything right? You can beat most lawsuits, so even when you legitimately owe money, you can simply refuse to pay. On those rare occasions that you lose, all you have to do is cough up what little money you owed in the first place.

McDonalds had an abysmal safety record. Numerous examples of their disregard to customers were made available during the trial. Furthermore, their cavalier attitude towards the lady with skin grafts angered the jury. They decided to give an astronomical settlement to send a wake-up call to McDonalds. They knew, as did everyone else, that this amount would be lowered in appeal.

I think the original settlement was something like 300 million dollars, whereas the final settlement was just over 1 million.

-Biscuits

By the way, the headaches you are getting are called vascular headaches. They are caused by too much blood being allowed to circulate through blood vessels in the brain, increasing pressure and causing a headache. Caffeine (as well as nicotine) have a capillary-shrinking effect on your blood vessels, making them smaller. Your body then adjusts. After a while, this size is assumed by your body to be "normal" When you stop drinking caffeine, the vessels are no longer the correct size, and a headache ensues.

Aslo, Advil will NOT help a vascular headache. Believe me, I tried.

Maybe aspirin? It thins the blood, right?

Aslo, Advil will NOT help a vascular headache. Believe me, I tried.

What's advil? Ibuprofen? I find paracetamol works fine against my caffeine-withdrawal headaches.

Peter

Thats a little scary, my blood vessels have gotten smaller... Quiting definately, maybe this is why I can't remember anything? Oh... wait a minute... that was the result of art college... nevermind

The biggest weight gainer (unless you eat a consistent fast food diet, in which case you probably have other malnutrition problems) is the sugar intake with coffee, tea and snacks. You may be OK in your original wieght loss plan by just having black coffee or tea with no sugar. Reducing the intake over a period of time would be beneficial too.
How long had you been having several cups of coffee per day? If it was a few years, going cold turkey like that was probably one of the more painful ways to drop it, as you found out.
Additionally, if you've had a bit of extra weight for a while, your body would be 'set' to that wieght and try to maintain that weight and you have to work REALLY hard to drop below that level and then MAINTAIN that weight until your body thinks that is the new normal weight.
Cutting out the sugar may be the best immediate solution.

Oh, and I understand that this is a good book on the subject

Yes, Advil is Ibuprofin.

Is that 1 lump or 2? 6 please Give up sugar, I don't think so.

Brett,

Perhaps the headaches and other effects aren't caffeine related...

It appears that Aspartame (the sweetner used in Diet Coke a.k.a Nutrasweet) may not be as harmless we think it is.

Have a read: KILLER COKE!!!

or
aspartamekills

or
Aspartame Warning

Urban legend? I don't know, I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I do like to read about them...

I guess the suggestion to go cold-turkey with just good 'ol plain water is the best suggestion

[EDIT] Ah, forgot to mention, memory loss is a side effect too, apparently...

Cas

needed lawyers

Surely that's an oxymoron?

I knew someone would jump on this when I wrote it. What I meant was that companies have the money to attract good lawyers, if consumers are legislated out of financial awards then the consumer has nothing to attract a good (ok ok smart) lawyer.

I'm with you...
Theres a line in a Beastie Boys song that goes something like:
"I like my sugar with coffee and cream"
I always thought that summed it up best.


Z~