A man convicted of stalking is continuing to harass his victim – this time in court.  A judge tossed his $10 million defamation lawsuit, but the stalker is planning to appeal.

A California mother who sued Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants alleging that their kids games are an illegal form of gambling has taken first place in the June poll looking for the most ridiculous lawsuit of the month.

There is a brand new slate of nominees up for July’s poll, including:

• the woman who hired a lawyer to sue over false advertising claims before she actually bought the product;
• the couple suing an animal rescue center because they haven’t removed a group of free-ranging peacocks;
• the woman suing the maker of her K-cup coffee pods, alleging that the product is not “fresh” and “delicious” as advertised;
• the man suing a grocer for $15,000 after he pricked his finger on a rose’s thorn; and
• the Arkansas couple claiming that seismic activity was caused by fracking process.

We will be profiling each of these cases over the course of the month, but you don’t have to wait to vote for the candidate most deserving of the Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Month title.  Click here to vote now.

A Michigan inmate serving time for a failed bank robbery is suing the state and the governor, alleging that the Macomb County jail’s ban on pornographic material amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.  His suit further argues that if an inmate cannot afford porn, taxpayers should foot the bill.

A New York judge has dismissed a deceptive practices lawsuit after a baseball fan bought $20 face-value Yankees tickets from StubHub.com for $33, writing in his opinion that the plaintiff’s claim “presumes that consumers have ‘a level of stupidity that the Court cannot countenance.’”

A Texas couple filed a lawsuit against Smith & Wesson, alleging inadequate warnings on the company’s large-frame hunting revolver.  After learning that they cannot sue for punitive damages, the attorney withdrew the suit.

A lawsuit accusing Sirius radio of violating anti-trust laws during its merger with XM radio would require the company to not raise subscription prices for customers this year – and now the lawyers for the plaintiffs want $13 million for their efforts.

An Illinois woman is suing the companies that make cups for her Keurig coffee machine, alleging that their claims of fresh, hot,  and delicious coffee are untrue and thus violate the state’s consumer protection laws.

A group of gamers is threatening to sue Sony Online Entertainment over the company’s decision to pull its Star Wars Galaxies interactive role-playing game. The company has decided that the game is no longer profitable and is making room for a successor scheduled to hit the shelves soon.

A group of peacocks that mysteriously showed up in Grand Rapids a few years ago has sparked a lawsuit from a man claiming that the birds are “creating dangerous, offensive or hazardous conditions.”  He is suing a local wildlife rehab center, saying they have been feeding and sheltering the birds, which otherwise would not survive the Michigan winters.

An Illinois law firm with a history of “filing ‘petty law suits’ against companies with deep pockets” has set its sights on Google, suing on behalf of an individual after he received unwanted texts from friends through the company’s Disco service.   The plaintiff says Disco, which allows users to send mass-messages to their own contacts, violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

A law school graduate, frustrated that she hasn’t found a fulfilling job, has decided to put what she learned to good use – by suing her alma mater.

The plaintiff is a 2008 graduate of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and says she’s still looking for full-time work as a lawyer.  She claims that’s the school’s fault, according to a lawsuit she filed alleging TJLS used employment statistics that were “false, misleading, and intentionally designed to deceive all who read them.”  The statistics in question said 80% of graduates were employed nine months after graduation, which the plaintiff “reasonably interpreted … to mean that the vast majority of TJLS graduates would find employment as full time attorneys.”

How many résumés did she send out after graduating with honors and passing the bar?  Over 150, and she only received one job offer, which was “less favorable than other non-law jobs available,” according to the plaintiff.

She’s not the only law school graduate having trouble finding full-time employment.  According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, there is “a growing field of itinerant ‘contract’ attorneys who move from job to job, getting paid by the hour, largely to review documents for law firms and corporate clients. These short-term jobs, which can pay as little as $15 an hour, have increasingly become a fixture in the $100 billion global corporate legal industry as law firms and clients seek to lower their costs.”

The nature of the profession of law may be changing, but our graduate seems to have already figured out one of the tried-and-true tactics of the plaintiffs’ bar: if you don’t know what else to do, sue!

Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Month?  Or one of these:

• “Defective” Toilet Paper Caused Plumbing Damage Says Lawsuit
• Mother Sues Chuck E. Cheese’s – Says Games Encourage Gambling in Children
• School Sued by Cyber-Bullies After It Kicks Them Off Cheerleading Squad

Vote!

An Illinois woman has filed a potential class action against the author and publisher of “Three Cups of Tea,” a memoir about the author’s journey through rural Pakistan that has recently been attacked as partly fictitious.  The plaintiff says readers “did not get what they paid for, but instead, were wrongly induced by each of the defendants to buy a phony and fictional story as opposed to the truth.”  The author denies any wrongdoing and stands by his book.

Have you ever mindlessly pumped fistfuls of quarters into an arcade game?  Did you ever spend $20 playing a midway game just to win a 25 cent stuffed animal?  Regret it afterwards?  If so, don’t blame yourself.  You couldn’t help it, at least according to a lawsuit filed in California.

A San Diego woman is suing the company that runs the Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants, claiming that their games are an illegal form of gambling under California law.  Such games could get kids hooked on gambling, since they “create the same highs and lows experienced by adults who gamble their paychecks or their mortgage payments.”

The suit is seeking class action status for all other similarly situated individuals; the money is, of course, a “secondary issue” (she wants $5 million, for what it’s worth).

The restaurant responds that the games aren’t illegal under California law, and the suit is an overreach of a law designed to regulate video slot machines, not kid’s arcade games.

The company is raising another interesting point: if her suit is successful, and the games are actually an illegal form of gambling, then she has admitted to participating in illegal gaming and disqualified from recovering any damages.  I wonder if she still wants to push forward, considering her de facto admission of exposing her kids to so-called illegal gaming.

Some people just don’t know when to quit.

How ridiculous is this?  Is it the most ridiculous one we’ve seen this month, or is it one of these:

• School Sued by Cyber-Bullies After It Kicks Them Off Cheerleading Squad
• “Defective” Toilet Paper Caused Plumbing Damage Says Lawsuit
• Unemployed Graduate Sues Law School Over Lack of Job Offers

Click here to vote.

Yet another gentleman is suing a nail salon claiming discrimination after he was charged more for services than women are charged ($1 more to be exact).  “There’s nothing to say my hands or my nails are any different than a woman’s nails,” says the plaintiff.  This is the third discrimination suit we’ve seen against a nail salon with the policy.  Once is a fluke, twice is a trend, and three times is a . . . litigation explosion?

A judge in New Jersey rejected a proposed class action against the makers of Arizona drinks, over claims that the drinks “All Natural” advertising is misleading.  Why?  The lead plaintiff couldn’t say for sure that she bought a drink BEFORE she hired a lawyer to sue the company, as is required by law (and common sense).

A class-action lawsuit has been filed accusing companies that inject wastewater into the ground of causing a series of minor earthquakes in Arkansas, many too small to be felt by humans.

A Texas janitor is suing the hospital where he works, saying he was injured by a soap dispenser that fell off the wall and hit him in the head while he was bent over a mop bucket.  The man wants $450,000 for his injuries.

A man who pricked his finger on a rose thorn is suing the store where he bought the flower, saying that the store should have stripped the thorns and wrapped the stem more carefully.

Dunkin’ Donuts is being sued by a Pennsylvania woman who claims she went into diabetic shock when an employee added sugar to her coffee instead of the artificial sweetener she asked for.  Is it the shop’s fault if they did in fact mix up the order, or does she bear some responsibility to check?

An unemployed graduate of a California law school is suing the institution, saying that they misrepresented the employment statistics of their alumni.  The student claims she sent out 150 resumes, and received only one offer that was ultimately “less favorable than non-law jobs.”   What do you think?  Is the suit frivolous or valid?