I cannot be bothered to look it up now but im pretty sure it's not as simple as shop sells coffee woman spills and sues ... As in they were told its too hot and they put out misinformation .. I have spilt coffee over myself a few times over the years and never got burnt (not saying its something I'd do for fun)
I don't think they've put out any misinformation about their hot coffee not being hot... they've serve it at a range that overlaps but also exceeds that of say Starbucks: 176 - 194 F in the case of McDonalds and 175-185 F in the case of Starbucks. As for why, their reason is that the customers want it like that, I don't doubt that someone going to get a takeaway coffee then drive back to their office, building site etc.. might want it hot so that it is still at least pretty warm still when they get back.
I suspect plenty of British people making cups of tea at home of at least the same temperature have also split some on themselves and not had nasty burns too - think about it, typically if you were spilling tea on yourself at home you'd likely jump up pretty quickly, your exposure is rather brief not to mention if you were wearing jeans or suit trousers or say at home with no trousers on lots of the tea will splash off. On the other hand if you're elderly/frail with weaker skin and sat in a car unable to jump up plus, sticking a cup between your legs and wearing sweat pants which will just absorb the hot liquid (not to mention your reaction to it probably spilling even more and causing further injury/pain then the results are going to be rather different!
Google the photos of the hot coffee victim's burns. They're absolutely atrocious. Then decide if it was too hot to serve to someone.
That is partly how the case was won - jury is going to empathise with a sweet old lady, the injuries are going to cause an emotional reaction, throw in that this big evil corporation serves among the hottest coffee etc.. She's wearing sweatpants that absorb the hot liquid and she wasn't able to jump up when sat in the car + the coffee was between her legs so not exactly splashing off elsewhere but rather pooling there.
Yet in the UK, a nation of tea drinkers, we have hot drinks served at least as hot as that at all manner of places, including without a lid. Various teas are supposed to be prepared with scalding hot water and so no, as a tea drinker, I don't personally believe that establishments should be prevented from serving drinks at that temperature... I regularly prepare drinks at at least at that temperature at home myself and customers should take some personal responsibility themselves. It isn't like people just get a freshly prepared cup of black tea and take a massive gulp of it, they sip it if impatient or just wait for it to cool down a bit.
Not to mention McDonalds is still serving its coffee hot! The change they've made to prevent further legal action is seemingly to include more warnings to people that the hot coffee is indeed hot and so they have a stronger argument in future that the adult who spills it over themselves after removing the lid say was rather silly and had been warned.
Plenty of independent cafes in the UK carry no such warning, serve drinks at a similar temperature and don't even necessarily offer lids, yet if we follow the argument of the supporters of this case all those establishments ought to be liable to make a massive pay out and/or potentially bankrupt themselves if not insured simply because they've served a regular cup of tea and the customer was clumsy.
(that's one of the most likely times it would be spilled.dropped and good luck getting it off your lap before you ended up with boiled nuggets).
