Originally posted by AggieDad ...This is interesting. How do MacDonald's and all the others using photographs of food even exist in Virginia? Certainly, Mickey-D never served a Big Mac that looked anything like what you would see in an ad. ...
True. Subway is the worst, I think, followed closely by Burger King. Most people don't realize that there's a legal issue at all (which is probably a good thing). And no one who knows that false advertising is worth $500 to anyone who cares to document the evidence carefully and spend (potentially) a few days in court wants to bother with it. Maybe someone who's still practicing law (unlike myself), could go find some unemployed people and give them enough money to buy themselves lunch and then document exactly what they got as well as the advertised product - since the consumer protection act promises an award of attorneys' fees.
Another problem with this kind of legislation is that judges are appointed politically, and they know which side of the bread their butter's on. Those who run the System Machinery are not the same people whom one finds in the local fast-food restaurant. Just plain folks don't get an even break for a lot of reasons. In my experience, courts don't think consumers' complaints are important, so the award of attorneys' fees reflects the courts' view of the significance of the suit. So, even though the function of the statute is supposed to be the improvement of the business climate in Virginia so that people will know they can rely on honest merchants, the courts treat consumer protection suits as next-to-frivolous (because consumers are not important people), so a lawyer might spend six thousand dollars worth of work on a case, with a resultant award of three hundred bucks (one hours' time) upon winning.