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on thanksgiving The Washington Post published an article about a South Florida woman who filed a lawsuit against Kraft Heinz Co. over false advertising. The lawsuit claims the company’s Velveeta mac and cheese cups take more than 3.5 minutes to prepare. The instructions on the back of the box, the plaintiffs say, only microwave for 3.5 minutes. The time it takes to open the lid and mix the ingredients is not taken into account and hence the product packaging is deceptive.
The class-action lawsuit, led by plaintiff Amanda Ramirez, is asking Kraft for $5 million in damages for deceptive and unfair trade practices. Lawyers say there are likely “more than 100 victims” spread across multiple states where the product is sold.
The reason a story is so compelling and amplified by so many social media platforms is because it has shock appeal—it grabs our attention and elicits a visceral reaction. It may even offend our moral instincts. We say to ourselves, “This is absurd,” or “It’s ridiculous,” or “I can’t believe it.” In the depths of our collective minds, we have a feeling that the complaint has no merit, and therefore it eats away at our sense of right and wrong.
So, you’re probably asking yourself, how does this mac and cheese complaint relate to the topic of medicine? How does this relate to the excess of malpractice claims in the United States?
In my opinion, cases like this that gain national attention are etched into our collective subconscious. They influence our attitude towards the judicial process. When a person experiences apparent medical abuse or injury, whether or not they decide to pursue legal action is determined in part by the cultural environment in which they live.
Now, let me be clear, I am all for protecting individual consumers from unchecked corporate power. The country and the world are a better place as a result of our protection under state and federal law. However, there is a tipping point where the law can be used and misused as an instrument of personal reward rather than a protective mechanism. Perhaps this case is just such a tipping point.
One of the attorneys representing the case, Spencer Sheehan, who lives in Great Neck, New York, has filed more than 400 similar food and beverage cases in recent years. According to NPRHe “almost single-handedly led the historic rise in class action lawsuits against food and beverage companies.”
He told the publication: “I think I’ve always been the type to get annoyed [and] I never liked it when companies cheated people out of small amounts, it would be hard to pay back. “
While some of the lawsuits he files must meet the legal standard to proceed, in my opinion, the pattern of lawsuits suggests he is using our legal system’s protection of individual consumer rights to his advantage – filing a large number of class action lawsuits (which are often accepted on a random basis). And to see if any of them are fed.
There are very few consequences for law firms that operate this way. If the complaint is truly frivolous, the plaintiff’s attorney can, among other things, be sanctioned by the court. However, “inconsequential” is a very difficult legal standard to meet, even if the plaintiff’s case is weak.
Now imagine, for example, how a person who believes they have suffered a minor medical injury might react to this story. Their logic might go something like this: “If a multinational company like Kraft Heinz Co. is forced to pay $5 million for miscalculating the time it takes to make instant mac and cheese, then of course I have my right to sue my doctor.” Although I like my doctor and am not sure if they made a mistake during my procedure, he has insurance so no one gets hurt if I sue.
Even if this exact reasoning doesn’t occur in the mind of a potential litigant, the story of mac and cheese — and others like it — can influence our public attitudes. It adds fuel to the controversial fire we see burning all around us every day: on personal injury billboards, TV commercials and public transport ads.
I do not expect that the American attitude towards the trial will change anytime soon. In the meantime, we can only point out that even if a complaint may have sufficient legal merit to stand trial, its filing may have a damaging, cumulative effect on the culture in which we live.
With that being said, I think it’s time to make a hot bowl of makeup and cheese that always brightens up my goofy outlook.
Eric Dessner, MD, is an ophthalmologist in Brooklyn, New York.
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