Op-Ed

Plaintiff lawyers owe companies like Taco Bell an apology

Bob Dorigo Jones Senior Fellow, The Center for America
Font Size:

My, how 25 years and millions of lawsuits can change the meaning of a once-popular slogan!

In the 1980s, the fast-food chain Wendy’s started a clever advertising campaign featuring an elderly woman staring at a competitor’s small hamburger and angrily asking, “Where’s the beef?” That slogan, and some pretty good food, helped Wendy’s become the third-largest fast-food chain in the world.

Fast forward to 2011. America is a much more litigious society than it was when Wendy’s made that slogan famous — these days, an average of about 15 million lawsuits are filed in the United States each year. Unfortunately, too often our judges are serving only the interests of plaintiff lawyers.

In light of America’s deteriorating legal climate, it probably surprised no one this January when an Alabama law firm specializing in product liability lawsuits decided to put its own twist on the “Where’s the beef?” question and sued another fast-food chain for allegedly lying to the public about the beef content of its food. The firm filed a class action lawsuit against Taco Bell, claiming the restaurant’s filling is 65 percent binders, extenders, preservatives, additives and other agents. I could almost hear a Chihuahua whimpering in the background.

It was a typical “sue first, ask questions later” display of lawyerly bravado that’s all too common in the United States today, but this time it backfired on the greedy barristers. Taco Bell fought back and, for a large corporation, was uncharacteristically vocal in defending itself from this ridiculous lawsuit. It utilized the media to effectively point out that its beef “is 88 percent quality USDA-inspected beef.” And guess what? Taco Bell won even before the matter got to a jury.

This week, the law firm decided to withdraw its lawsuit. The lawyers at the firm have refused to comment, but it’s doubtful that they’re celebrating by having a fiesta. Taco Bell, on the other hand, took out a full-page ad in major newspapers to declare that the lawsuit was withdrawn and boldly asked the lawyers: “Would it kill you to say you’re sorry?” Good for them! They’ve set a terrific example for companies across America to stand up against frivolous lawsuits.

However, not everyone agrees with me, and now Taco Bell is being criticized by some marketing “experts” for that ad. I say to them, “What’s your beef?!” Actually, I’d like to say something much stronger, but I can’t turn that into a pun. As a person who markets ideas to millions of Americans each year, I say that the vast majority of Americans will see this stand by Taco Bell as a positive thing. I always encourage Americans to patronize businesses that fight back against predatory lawyers’ baseless claims.

Today, unfortunately, it’s common to see meritless class action lawsuits like this filed against deep-pocketed companies EXACTLY because too many of them have refused to fight back like Taco Bell did. Plaintiff lawyers know that they can abuse the “justice” system to extort millions of dollars out of a company because the company knows that the bad publicity could cost it millions more. The mantra is settle, settle, settle.

In addition to the huge legal bills it must pay, a company can take a massive hit to its market value because of meritless lawsuits. Investors, scared off by the prospect of a long trial against the company, might flee the company’s stock and cause the value of the company to decline by hundreds of millions of dollars or more. It happens. No wonder so many companies settle.

Taco Bell is owed an apology. But not just from the law firm that filed this whopper of a lawsuit. Taco Bell is owed an apology by our public officials who have allowed America’s civil justice system to become a laughing stock around the world because lawsuits like this regularly make it through the front door of the courthouse. Taco Bell had to spend a lot of money on lawyers and defending itself in the media before this lawsuit was withdrawn, and they’ll never get that money back.

Yo quiero a justice system for which we no longer have to apologize!

Bob Dorigo Jones, who serves as Senior Fellow for the Center for America, is the author of the bestselling Remove Child Before Folding, The 101 Stupidest, Silliest and Wackiest Warning Labels Ever. He also hosts the radio commentary, “Let’s Be Fair,” that airs on radio stations across the country.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel