This is an upsetting story. In 2010, James Ruiz, who had a record of five prior DWI arrests, was driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of almost three times the legal limit. He rammed his truck into another car, killing two teenage passengers.

Truly, this was a tragedy, and James Ruiz deserves the 40 year sentence he received.

Ruiz, however, seems to think he deserves a payday instead. Last Wednesday, he filed a lawsuit, blaming his actions on his friend for allowing him to drive and the restaurants he visited for serving him alcohol.

We lose a lot of fun things to lawsuit abuse. Playgrounds, for instance, are nothing like they used to be – personal injury lawyers have made the merry-go-round a thing of the past. Similarly, litigation threatens to completely change the sport of football.

Recently, we’ve been telling you about a few serial plaintiffs, who file dozens of abusive lawsuits a year. Remember this woman in Ohio, who sued Kobe Bryant? What about this woman in Connecticut, who has filed over 70 lawsuits in the last two years?

Thankfully, judges often take steps to stop people like this, who tie up court time and waste thousands of taxpayer dollars on frivolous lawsuits. Typically, judges can label these folks “vexatious litigants,” restricting their abilities to sue.

Editor’s Note: Project Lawsuit Abuse regularly highlights lawsuit abuse news from across the country. Today, Melissa Landry, Executive Director of Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch, contributed a guest post for Project Lawsuit Abuse.

Thinking of throwing a parade-watching party this Carnival Season?  Beware: getting too caught up in Mardi Gras madness could leave you in a legal lurch.

Lawsuits happen all the time for seemingly any reason—but the stakes are raised even higher when alcohol is involved, which is often the case this time of year.

You’ve heard about the “it wasn’t my fault” lawsuits before – someone sues a fast food company for making them obese, or sues a manufacturer after using a product incorrectly and injuring themselves. But this story really takes the cake. Or the beer, we should say.

Last week, five inmates in Idaho decided to sue a number of alcohol distributors, blaming these companies for their alcoholism and claiming that their addictions forced them to commit crimes. As a result, they are asking for a whopping $1 billion in compensation. Defendants in the case include Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing and the makers of Jim Beam.

If you’ve ever hosted a party, you probably spent a lot of time planning it. A good party host will put serious effort into picking out food, decorations, drinks, and, obviously, music. Of course, parties don’t always go as anticipated. Things can go wrong – perhaps you burned your main course, or your friend spilled a drink all over your cute table cloth. Or, maybe an acquaintance decided to take over as DJ and play terrible music.

If you’ve been paying attention to litigation trends around the country, you’ve probably heard about the wave of concussion lawsuits that former players have brought against the NFL this year.

One obvious consequence of these lawsuits is that the NFL might have to pay billions of dollars to the plaintiffs and their lawyers. A less obvious consequence involves insurance costs. Insurance companies will be hit hard by the litigation, potentially having to pay the NFL billions.

Have you ever been disappointed with a restaurant? If so, you know that few things are more frustrating than paying good money for a meal that tastes like rubber.  Thankfully, we live in a country where we are blessed with freedom of speech, so we are able to speak up when that happens.

Lawsuit abuse has a lot of negative consequences – it costs jobs, hurts economies and drives up medical expenses. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that trial lawyers might be ruining our children’s playgrounds. Once adventurous play areas have become increasingly tame under threats of expensive lawsuits, and experts say that these risk-free playgrounds are creating fearful, overweight and anxious children.

Lately, it is all the rage to sue food companies for causing obesity. Obesity lawsuits have become the next cash cow for trial lawyers who want to take away your right to eat delicious food and get rich doing it.

It’s Thanksgiving – a time for family, food, football and…lawsuits? At least, that seems to be what personal injury firms are thinking. In celebration of the holidays, personal injury firms have been spreading blog posts and press releases like this one, warning folks to take the most basic precautions to avoid accidents (and lawsuits) on Thanksgiving. Like outrageous warning labels, these trial lawyer blogs are a little insulting and condescending. For instance, you probably don’t need a personal injury lawyer to tell you not to let your turkey burn!

Have you ever decided you no longer wanted to receive text message alerts from a company or organization? If so, I’ll bet you did what most folks would do and hit “unsubscribe.” Jerry Wojcik, however, had a different response: he decided to sue.