Overheating iPad results in Apple being sued
Some enterprising lawyers have decided that the common-sense injunction against using electronics in bright sunlight is not as good as a legal injunction, so they have filed a class actions lawsuit about overheating iPads.
One way to insure that your shiny new iPad overheats is to turn it on, lay it down so that the noontime sun shines directly on its screen, and wait awhile for the iPad to be smart enough to turn itself off to avoid damage. Apparently, a group of attorneys somewhere has noticed that if you do something that stupid, the iPad in question does indeed overheat and turn itself off. Having proven to their satisfaction that the laws of physics still apply, the attorneys in question have filed a class action suit against Apple (instead of the universe, which actually enforces the laws of physics) and are currently looking for people to join them, which is the way class action lawsuits work.
Of course, it does not matter that the overheating iPad issue is analogous to putting your foot in front of a bus tire and waiting until the bus rolls over it, then suing because the bus injured your foot. Both are classic cases of the maxim, “If it hurts to do that, don’t do that.” A CNET story notes that the suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. If that court allows the case to go forward, and it probably will, it will be just as guilty of ignoring the aforementioned maxim. Since it is attorneys that run our court system, and since it is attorneys that generally get the largest rewards in class action suits, one cannot expect the court to take the fruits of litigation away from their legal brethren.
If our society were not so litigious, and if the courts were not so willing to keep it that way, attorneys would purchase fewer Mercedes. It could be argued, I suppose, that everybody suing everybody else for everything they do is one way to keep the wheels of commerce greased, and therefore attorneys are single-handedly responsible for keeping the economy afloat. Unfortunately, in cases like these, it is the attorneys who are kept afloat in a sea of legal fees.
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