Emanuel Cleaver: “The meritless cases, however, rarely ever win in the first place. I was offended when I first heard that somebody sued…”

“The meritless cases, however, rarely ever win in the first place. I was offended when I first heard that somebody sued McDonald's because they ordered a cup of hot coffee and were burned by the hot coffee that they ordered. I was offended by that as well, and I think most Americans are. But in reality, the meritless cases rarely ever win in the first place, and that is contrary to the allegations that generally come forth, particularly from the major corporations. They would have us believe that the frivolous lawsuits are just automatically finding their way to the courtroom and that they are meritless, but they win. And the truth of the matter is that our intricate system, with the law and juries and judges and even independent reviewers, will pretty much weed out the frivolous lawsuits. And they are filed to no one's benefit, except a lawyer, who I think we can find one in any profession who is going to try to take advantage of their system. And it has nothing to do with having gone to law school. It has something to do with human nature. But I think that the way that this whole issue has been played out ends up actually protecting the one entity that I think is the most culpable, and that is the insurance companies that are not regulated.”