Basic Trope: A lawsuit over something silly.
- Straight: Alice sues a waiter for accidentally spilling soup on her, even though she was not injured and the waiter apologized and took her to get cleaned up.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice sues the waiter because the soup had lima beans in it, even though she was informed of that on the menu and could have either requested no lima beans or ordered something else instead.
- The chain of lawsuits escalate to a point where it culminates in "Everyone vs. Everyone".
- Alice files dozens of ridiculous lawsuits over minor slights, such as a store discontinuing a snack she liked, her friend mildly teasing her, her boyfriend "only" spending $190 on gifts instead of the $200 she wanted, and so on.
- Alice stabs Carl unprovoked, and then sues him because she got blood on her.
- Downplayed: Alice sues her boss Bob for wrongful termination after being fired, claiming that Bob had bullied her because she was female and fired her when she refused to give in. Most of her coworkers agree that Bob was a misogynist and a very unpleasant man to work for, but Alice was also not a very good worker and gave Bob some legitimate reasons to fire her.
- Justified:
- Alice has no money or job and can't get either.
- Alice has a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Author Alice Can't Take Criticism, so she sues people over negative reviews.
- Alice is getting sued, and she is pulling all stops to dismiss the suit, including filing a countersuit.
- Inverted:
- Alice sues the waiter or restaurant over something more serious, such as not informing customers that "X contains peanuts," which resulted in Alice having a potentially lethal allergic reaction.
- Alice rewards the waitress with the Nobel Peace Prize for not spilling the soup on her.
- Subverted:
- Alice threatens to sue, but ends up not doing so.
- Alice sues for the waiter sneezing on her, or so the newspapers mentioned. In actual fact, Alice had a weakened immune system and became gravely sick afterwards. The waiter was later found to have influenza that was mostly asymptomatic - and he was supposed to stay home per health regulations and company policy. In short, Alice actually had good reasons to file the lawsuit, but most of the media failed to explain every detail of the case. They only mentioned the bits to make Alice look bad.
- Double Subverted: Until the clumsy waiter spills soup on Bob, and then she sues.
- Parodied: Alice sues someone because she broke her fingernail on their property. More absurdly still, she wins the suit!
- Zig-Zagged: Alice's friends tell her they think filing a lawsuit is a bit excessive. Alice angrily dismisses them, but privately she thinks they may have a point. She hems and haws over the issue and finally decides, but the camera fades to black before the audience can find out what she decided.
- Averted:
- Alice does not sue.
- Alice sues for valid/meritorious reasons.
- The restaurant tries to appease Alice by offering to pay for her dry-cleaning bill, or giving her a free meal next time she visits.
- Enforced:
- Rule of Funny, Truth in Television
- One of the writers used to work as a paralegal in a civil litigation form and has a wealth of memories of people trying and failing to start ridiculous meritless lawsuits, as well as a few that were actually filed solely because the client so thoroughly misrepresented the facts that it did look like they had a claim at face value.
- Lampshaded: "You're suing him because he spilled soup on you? Isn't that a bit extreme?"
- Invoked: "Don't you know how to do your job?! I'll sue you and this restaurant for this!"
- Exploited:
- Dishonest lawyers make it a point to keep their pockets full by working for people who make frivolous lawsuits so that they can use underhanded methods to ensure that their clients win.
- Rich Bitch Claire has a grudge with the waiter in question, and bankrolls the lawsuit so that Alice will receive top dollar representation she would never otherwise receive. Said lawyer is the only reason why the lawsuit doesn't get laughed out of court the moment it's filed.
- Defied:
- Alice decides it's not worth suing over something so silly. She just gets cleaned up and goes about her business.
- The lawyers, the judge, or sometimes both laugh Alice out of court, especially if the authorities' investigations showcase that the only "injury" Alice got was a soup stain on her shirt that took twenty-five cents' worth of detergent to get rid of.
- Alice goes to an attorney to present her case, but they turn her down.
- Alice says she will sue... unfortunately when she gets in the waiter's face and starts to shriek, it turns out that she's Bullying a Dragon. Cut to next scene where Alice stammers that she won't sue, obviously frightened of something the waiter threatened her with.
- The court makes perfectly clear that Alice has a good reason to sue because, no matter how absurd the situation looks to the common man, she did suffered a calamity (disproportionate or otherwise) that should not have happened (Alice had soup spilled on her and was the only customer in the building and she did not ordered soup so there was no reason to get near her with a soup plate, she was abducted and tortured for hours on end in "self-defense", the lucky pants she sent to wash in Cleveland reappeared two weeks later in a secondhand clothing store in Tokyo, etc.)
- Discussed: "She actually thinks she can just sue the restaurant for accidentally spilling food on her? What's next, a lawsuit aimed at a pizzeria for delivering her pizza with anchovies?"
- Conversed: "Of course! It's not a lawsuit unless the person is suing over a trivial or petty concern such as making someone drop their ice cream cone or cutting in line."
- Implied:
- A judge is seen laughing when they hear of a lawsuit, though just why the plaintiff is suing isn't stated clearly.
- A lawyer laments his lack of work, "the only clients I get are the crazy ones".
- A pro se litigant in a commercial liability case is declared a vexatious litigant after they lose.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice sues the waiter, but her suit is laughed out of court and only makes her look loony.
- Alice sues the waiter and wins, but being infamous for having filed the suit makes it difficult for her to find a job or a partner later in life. No restaurant would ever serve her again for fear of being sued.
- Alice and her lawyer face heavy attorney's fees and sanctions.
- Reconstructed: Alice is not the first person to have soup spilled on them. She launches a class-action suit with other disgruntled patrons. The exact charge is "spilled soup" but it's under a more serious umbrella like "customer safety."
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice yelps as the soup that spilled on her was hot ... then she leaps up and knocks aside a waiter who was carrying a cake with a priceless heritage wedding ring in it ... then it was later eaten by a movie star's pet chihuahua that promptly got sick because dogs shouldn't eat chocolate. Somehow, this sparks enough lawsuits to keep 100 lawyers working for the rest of their careers.
- Alice sues the restaurant and wins... only to be awarded $10 in damages while being stuck owing thousands in legal fees.
- Played for Drama:
- Kangaroo Court
- Alice wins her ridiculous lawsuit, which ruins the waiter's life.
- Alice goes too far with her lawsuit, thinking that being correct in principle makes it righteous, only for all of her friends to become disgusted at the sheer disproportion of it all and leaving her alone. Whether or not she wins, all that Alice can do now is question herself "Was It Really Worth It?"
- Played For Horror:
- Alice starts with a lawsuit but she decides she won't be satisfied until she has punished the waiter in every way she feels necessary. She becomes a stalker, destroys his life, kills his family and finally tortures him.
- Alice's lawsuit starts a Cycle of Revenge between her and the waiter that causes all types of concerning moments (the waiter losing all of his life savings and being ineligible for work, Alice's daughter wandering away from her in a mall courtesy of the waiter showing her candy, they stalk each other) and ends with one of them murdering the other in a fashion that makes the news as "police suspects is the work of a Serial Killer".
What's this?! You came down here without reading the whole thing? I'll sue! I'll sue your pants off if you don't go back to Frivolous Lawsuit this instant!
