HOW CAN A THIEF SUE THE FAMILY HE ROBBED?
Have you heard the story of Terrence Dickson? Even if you don’t know the name, you might have heard his strange tale. Dickson was a burglar in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. One day, after breaking into a house and helping himself to some valuables, Dickson decided to leave through the garage. After discovering the automatic garage door was stuck closed, Dickson turned around and was horrified to realize he’d locked himself inside. To make matters worse, the family he was stealing from had just left for an extended vacation, so Dickson lived off of soda and dried dog food for eight days. When the family returned and found the unlucky burglar, a lawsuit was filed — by Dickson! He sued for mental anguish, and the jury awarded him $500,000. There’s nothing that shakes our faith in the justice system quite like injustice being served. When Dickson’s story first gained notoriety in 2001, thanks to an email circulated by the now-defunct Stella Awards newsletter, which
highlighted “outrageous lawsuits,” people were rightfully enraged. There was just one problem: Terrence Dickson never existed. In 2002, a reporter from Pennsylvania contacted the Bucks County prothonotary’s office, where all records for civil cases in the county are kept. He discovered there was no record of any cases involving such a burglar. It’s worth noting the original email where this story first appeared ended with a call for tort reform from a made-up law firm in Ohio. Likely, this hoax was an attempt to manipulate the public perception of the justice system. Despite being debunked 17 years ago, this tall tale still makes the rounds and often appears on lists of “outrageous lawsuits,” many of which are featured on the websites of legitimate law firms! There are plenty of wacky legal cases, but when a story is too ridiculous, there’s a good chance a few important details are being left out or the readers are being lied to. Don’t believe everything you read online!
G one to the D ogs
T he G reen H eart H arvest D inner THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER WONDERFUL YEAR When we’re not advocating for your safety in the workplace, Christmas Injury Lawyers is busy with our other passion: helping to strengthen the South Carolina community. This May, we were lucky enough to partner with the Green Heart Project, an initiative that shares our values of hard work and strong ethics, to participate in its 9th Annual Green Harvest Dinner at Mitchell Elementary School — a pot-luck style barbecue that brought in over 900 attendees and raised more than $40,000 for the Farms to Schools Program. We love the Green Heart Project’s mission of educating school- aged kids on the benefits of growing fresh produce on urban farms because it helps the next generation stay healthy and teaches them perseverance, patience, civic responsibility, and the value of hard work. Many of the students who participate come from low-income households without easy access to fresh produce, but the Green Heart Project teaches them the skills they need to maintain their own gardens for life.
Since its founding in 2009, the project has grown to include six elementary schools and a summer program, and its efforts have been proven to positively impact students’ enthusiasm for learning, along with their science and understanding skills, standardized test scores, GPAs, higher-order thinking skills, and confidence. The kids involved also developed better school attendance and had fewer disciplinary problems after working together to care for their crops. At the Green Harvest Dinner, all of that positivity permeated the air as attendees dined on the food they’d grown. We’re so lucky we were afforded the opportunity to give back to our community with an organization that provides students with unique lessons on health in the greater Charleston area. We’d like to give a big thank you to Green Heart Project for all of the amazing work they have done and the many successes to come!
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