Wow! We made it! This term has been a whirlwind, but here we are
in week 8. I feel like I have learned so much from this class and I
intend to continue reading more about business law as it will be
valuable for both my personal and professional life going forward.
My perception of the law has not changed in this course however the
scope of business law has become more apparent to me as I have
read, written, and practiced this term. I knew about cases of
businesses being sued by consumers but the lawsuits always seemed
so frivolous when shown in the media, as you learn more about the
cases you come to realize just how important and impactful some of
these cases are. I had talked about the Liebeck v. McDonald's
Restaurants lawsuit when we were talking about cases due to
defective products and negligence. This lawsuit is fascinating to me
because the media perception and even the perception now is that
Liebeck's lawsuit was frivolous, however, she suffered third-degree
burns on her pelvic region which required painful skin graphs and
resulted in her being partially disabled for 2 years and permanently
disfigured. A jury found Mcdonald's Corporation 80% at fault for the
incident. That case is known worldwide and is used as an example in
media and classrooms. So not only was the individual and the
corporation impacted but history as we know it was impacted. In my
professional life as a CPA, I will need to understand a decent amount
of business law information to legally and ethically run my business.
In my personal life, understanding how wills need to be written and
under what conditions will help me prepare my own so that my last
wishes are not questioned or misunderstood. I have used my
knowledge of tenant's rights which we learned about in Business Law
I to help my sister when she was dealing with noisy and dangerous
neighbors and a landlord who was not remedying the situation even
after police were involved. She was able to ensure that her living
arrangement was safe and peaceful for another year by citing cases
related to tenant law. I am certain the information that I have
learned from this class will help me in ways I don't even know yet
and I appreciate all of you for working with me and helping me to
learn and understand business law in a different light and from new
and interesting perspectives.
References:
Kubasek, N., Browne, N. M., Herron, D., Dhooge, L., & Barkacs, L.
(2019). Dynamic Business Law (5th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, April 16). Liebeck v. McDonald's
Restaurants. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 21, 2022,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald
%27s_Restaurants
