As conservative as Texas is, it still has a tort system that makes these illogical, “Jackpot” verdicts possible. As others have posted, you get a bunch of jurors who vote on emotion rather than logic and you end up with the absurd result that McDonalds is 97% liable and the actual murderers are 3% liable. Its not like this kid slipped on a wet floor and cracked his head open and died. He was killed. The only — only — way you get to a result of it being 97% McDonalds’ fault is if you permit people to simply assign blame based on ability to pay. Hell. Why not get a list of stockholders of McDonalds, find the richest ones, and sue them too. Why not award the family a billion dollars?
There are jurisdictions in Texas that are known to be plaintiff’s haven, corrupt in favor of the plaintiff.