Gwyneth Paltrow says she felt like she was being shaken down during her infamous ski crash trial ... adding the very concept of getting sued by someone who was totally at fault stands out as everything wrong with the American legal system.
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00:00Moving on to Gwyneth Paltrow and her concerns about the judicial system.
00:04And in fact, she says there is no reason, this is why she thinks there's a problem.
00:09Why in the world was she in court, this was years ago, and obviously it's still...
00:13One of the great trials.
00:14One of the great trials, it really was.
00:16It is the hoitiest of toitiest trials.
00:18This was over the ski accident at Deer Valley in Utah.
00:22She and Dr. Terry, what was his name? I can't remember.
00:25Oh God, I forgot his name.
00:26And she was saying that they went for a bonding trip and it ruined their whole spa day.
00:32Yes, great testimony.
00:34Well, Gwyneth clearly still has...
00:37She won. She won big.
00:39Well, she won. I don't know about big. We'll get to that.
00:42But here's what she said on the world's first podcast with Sarah Foster.
00:46Definitely some ill will she still feels toward the doctor.
00:50Oh my God, Gwyneth in court.
00:52In court is literally like...
00:55It was such an amazing thing to watch.
00:58She's who I want to be.
00:59She... Gwyneth in court is who I want to be.
01:01Well, the best part of it really was just how the internal eye roll the whole time at the fact that you were there at all.
01:08The whole thing felt so honestly funny because it was so ridiculous.
01:12You know, it was ridiculous.
01:16And I have to say, like, the idea that somebody could ski into your back and knock you down and then sue you, I was like, this is everything that's wrong with our legal system.
01:29Literally.
01:29And that's why I felt like I had to fight it.
01:31I was like, I'm not going to be shaken down here.
01:34No.
01:34Like, I'm not doing that.
01:35Well, she certainly gave us hours of entertainment with this one.
01:39So much entertainment.
01:40And you're right.
01:40She...
01:41And she did win.
01:41By the way, I should say...
01:42She got a penny, didn't she?
01:43Or something like that.
01:44A dollar.
01:44A dollar.
01:45One dollar when she countersued him.
01:46Well, she only got a dollar.
01:47That's all she wanted.
01:48That's all she asked for.
01:49She wanted to make a point.
01:50Yeah.
01:50She might have got a lot more and made a point.
01:52Going to the substance of what she said, doesn't she have a point here?
01:55Like, the trial was sort of a farce, right?
01:58There was no real claim that he had.
02:00No, no, no.
02:00He did have a claim.
02:02He said she ran into him.
02:04But it was false.
02:06I mean...
02:06Right.
02:06I mean, that was his claim.
02:08And the jury said it's not true.
02:10So we, in our system, we allow everybody to sue and then it comes out as it was.
02:13But Gwyneth Paltrow can withstand the financial burden, but a lot of people can't.
02:17I think there's a point here that this kind of, like, frivolous lawsuits are really bringing down our system.
02:21We say this all the time, that people...
02:23You can sue for anything.
02:24Right.
02:25And yeah, that means someone's going to have to go through the process.
02:29But the alternative, how do you fix that, Jason?
02:36Well, in Europe, for example, the losing party typically has to pay the prevailing party's attorney's fees.
02:43But not in a personal injury case in the United States, and that's the problem.
02:48Not in the United States.
02:48So that's something you could change.
02:49But then you would say, on the other side, the way Europe does it, it prevents sort of people who can't afford lawyers in the first place from being able to bring their claims.
02:56Because the fear of loss is too great or bankrupt them.
02:59Right.
02:59And they may have a good claim, but that doesn't mean they're going to win.
03:02You never know if you're going to win.
03:03And if you're not sure and you end up having to pay attorney's fees, you just don't sue.
03:07And you don't vet your legal rights.
03:09So therein lies the issue.
03:11Hi.
03:11My name is Alan.
03:12I'm from Pennsylvania.
03:13And I agree with Gwyneth Paltrow.
03:15Something is wrong with the legal system.
03:17I just don't know that she should be the one speaking on it because she won the settlement on a ski lawsuit.
03:24You know what I mean?
03:25So it's like, yeah, something is wrong.
03:27But it's like, maybe you're just privileged.
03:28You didn't realize it just now or something.
03:29Well, something may be wrong, but let me be honest with you for a second.
03:33Did you kind of enjoy the trial?
03:35I didn't watch the trial.
03:37Oh, you missed a good one.
03:39You missed a good one.
03:41Oh, my God.
03:41You can get the DVD online or something.
03:43It was fabulous.
03:47Oh, my God.