Unlike the outcome of most other law suits, the hot-coffee verdict received nationwide attention, most of it unfavorable. To many ordinary people, the case epitomized the excesses of the legal system out of control. If hot coffee if dangerous, what's next: soft drinks that are to cold? To conservatives, the case represented the all-too-familiar failure of consumers to take responsibility for their own conduct, to blame business rather than themselves for their injuries. More policyoriented pundits used the case as an occasion to call for reform of product liability law--in particular, to make winning frivolous suits more difficult and to restrict the punitive awards that juries can hand down.