As one of the evil ilk of lawyer/inventors I'd be very interested to know the real details of the case. Maybe that plaintiff just hit the jury lotto because you seldom hear of a jury doing something like that. Sometimes you get anti-big business, or certain prejudices that can trigger outlandish rewards, but wood working is not in that realm. You get as many anti-plaintiff mindsets as "hand out the money" mindsets, and it take a majority (if not unanimity) to get the verdict.
Now, a very common lecture in any business course or early law class is the Ford Pinto case - i.e., saving $0.10 per car because that total was higher than the expected payout to the dead and injured of the badly designed part. That kind of documentation will trigger a pissed-off jury to penalize you.
Yes, it is jury nullification to some extent. At the same time, it is a way for society to bring the laws immediately up to the accepted social morals of that little area - one district court. It will either stop there or spread to state legislatures.
I'm too lazy to go see what actually happened here, but I doubt this is a radical shift in America's trip to hell on the wings of a hand-basket. Really, my laziness in researching this rant is more indicative of that fall.
Finally, Mark it is sad to see someone of your potential so addicted to their hobby that they have to read a string of other people's comments - none of which are journalist or have a TV show...how can you trust them – just to get their sawdust high. Get better man.
Oh, and i'm thinking of buying some of those Axiom computer speakers, anybody tried those. I hear they are bright and will cause my McIntosh Amp to trip b/c they are .005 ohms. Guide me.
