Soda Legal War Soon to Begin

Newsmax.com ^ | December 8th, 2005 | Jim Meyers

[Thunder90]

Trial lawyers who made a fortune from lawsuits against tobacco companies are moving on to a new potential payday: Suing soft drink companies over the sale of sugary beverages in schools.

Stephen Gardner, staff lawyer for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and half a dozen other lawyers – several of them veterans of successful tobacco litigation – plan to file a lawsuit in the next few months seeking to ban sales of sugary beverages in schools.

[paulat]

Gotta say...I haven't ordered a soda in a restaurant for the last 30 years.

If I eat out...it's for the food...and I'm usually the designated driver, so that rules out other things.

Sodas seem really expensive in restaurants.

[meadsjn]

Meanwhile in Seattle, one lawyer is on trial for shooting another lawyer in the head and turning him into a vegetable. So sad ...

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Will we have to stand outside the front doors to drink a Coke?

Nope, open container laws.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

I thought sure that after tobacco they would go after caffeine. Dodged a bullet there.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Ban high-fructose corn syrup now And Ethanol Too!
Are those the same things?

[Sometimes A River]

But that wouldn't be the answer for the Lawyers...they'll demand "damages."

And I agree...that stuff shouldn't be sold in schools anyways.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

If I want to put soda or tobacco in my body,...
We just won't tell your parents or get their permission.

[Clemenza]

Reminds me of when I was in France in June, when diet Coke cost four euro while a carafe of wine cost three Euro.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Pop is just sugar water and a waste of money. But if someone wants to drink it that should be their decision."

Pop is absolutely one of the worst food products from a health standpoint, and the schools should not encourage its use. If people want to drink pop in their homes, that's fine, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the schools eliminating it in cafeterias. Pop is a tremendous contributor to obesity and diabetes. I hope conservatives don't want to concede that having children eat a healthy diet is only a concern to liberals.

[Howlin]

Of course. How could I have forgotten.

I guess we'll just have to go in the alley and brown-bag it.

[sionnsar]

the only lawsuit I'll support from these dang lawyers is when they file a class-action lawsuit against beer manufacturers for making me wake up with ugly women in the morning..:)

You're wanting beer that will keep you asleep until the afternoon?

[somniferum]

Stephen Gardner, staff lawyer for the Center for Science in the Public Interest..

Wow, really surprising that these bozos are involved.. NOT!

[Spok]

These suits are ones of 'first impression', which means the lawyers are trying to create new causes of action by expanding traditional notions of product fitness and negligence. Judges with cajones can throw them out in summary proceedings for failure to state a claim, and impose sanctions against the attorneys for signing pleadings which are not "well grounded in fact" and aren't "warranted by EXISTING law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law...not interposed for any improper purpose..."

[Theresawithanh]

I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't go after iced tea, my non-alc beverage of choice.

[Howlin]

OMG, I'd have to have methadone! Hush!

[GeorgiaDawg32]

LOL...you guys/girls crack me up...:)

[layman]

plan to file a lawsuit in the next few months seeking to ban sales of sugary beverages in schools

I thought we already got rid of the Taliban. Apparently not.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Will we have to stand outside the front doors to drink a Coke?

Not only that, you'll have to keep it stashed in a cooler in your car, in the school parking lot...and sneak out of study-hall for a quick soda-fix... :)

[albee]

"Will we have to stand outside the front doors to drink a Coke?"

Why don't they just raise the legal age for buying Coke, Pepsi, 7UP, etc to 21.....just like cigarettes and beer? /sarcasm

[connectthedots]

The answer is very simple....the schools should just pull this crap out of the schools. No law suit. What's wrong with a water fountain?

You obviously don't realize just how much money soda machines make for school activity funds. It is a major revenue source.